


Table top

by UnderZeWeather



Series: AU Jam [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Block - Freeform, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), M/M, Meklavar - Freeform, Monster and manna au, Pike - Freeform, Team Bonding, Thundar, playing D&D, things they do in their down time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 27,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderZeWeather/pseuds/UnderZeWeather
Summary: The group just sit around and play Monsters and Manna between saving the universe.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: AU Jam [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893274
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	1. Character intros

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in Strawberry and Blueberry Jam under Monsters and Manna AU.
> 
> Also, the names were based off of the monster's and manna episode (I am like 90% Shiro just called his character Shiro) and I made up Keith's name because apparently Thunder is a popular name for his potential character's name? idk. His race and class were based off the notes in for the episode. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D
> 
> Pike - Lance  
> Thundar - Keith  
> Block - Hunk  
> Meklavar - Pidge  
> Valayun - Allura  
> Shiro - Shiro

Pike and his team had another successful day of adventuring. They had saved a village from stone golem and were now reaping the rewards. Block was off helping prepare a feast with the villagers, Meklavar had tracked down a lead on the Jewel of Jitan, Valayun was looking for a better bow for herself, and Shiro was… Well he was his usual pious, paladin self.

Which meant that Pike could sneak away like the ninja he was and take a dip in the hot springs. The whole reason Pike had wanted to go there in the first place was so they could go for a dip. But the golem and the village and the whole place getting cursed put a hold on that plan.

He sighed contently as he sunk down to his shoulders. It was so relaxing. Off in the distance he heard something. Said something was coming closer and it made Pike’s ears twitch. Before Pike could jump over and grab his weapons, a robed figure stumbled out of the tree lines. Said figure took two steps forwards before they collapsed into the hot spring, face down. He was kind of sinking.

“... Oh shit!” Pike quickly pulled the person out of the water and checked to see if he was breathing. Just for good measure he did a bit of CPR. When he was sure this guy wasn’t dead, Pike put his clothes back on. He then crouched next to his person and took off his hood.

This person looked like they might have been an elf but their ears were kind of short. So maybe a half-elf? He also seemed to be a ranger if his gear meant anything. Pike’s tail started to swish as he gently poked the man’s face.

The man’s eyes snapped open and he grabbed Pike, pinning him to the ground. “Whoa!” Yelped Pike. “Easy there elf boy! I just saved your life!”

“...” The man immediately collapsed on top of him and passed out. 

“... What the hell?” Pike ended up dragging the dead weight back to the village. Shiro was the first to spot him and helped Pike take the mystery man back to the inn they were staying at. Block saw them, since he was cooking at the inn, and ran over to see if he could help

“So they guy just walked out of the trees and almost drowned?” Questioned Block.

Pike nodded. “Yep. Pretty much. I have no idea where he came from. He’s kind of aggressive though…”

Block nodded and waved his staff over the half-elve’s body. After a few minutes he shrugged. “Well he isn’t poisoned, injured or cursed. He’s just exhausted. He needs a good night’s sleep and some good food when he wakes up.”

Pike narrowed his eyes at him. “That’s your solution to everything.”

“Food is life.”

Shiro shook his head and sighed. “Okay guys, we have a bit of a problem though… We have two rooms at this inn. One small room with two beds and a larger one two three beds. The elf deserves a bed and we can’t ask Meklavar or Valayun to give up their beds since they aren’t here.”

One quick round of scissor’s, paper, rock, later and Pike had lost his bed. Hell, he wasn’t even sleeping in a bed. He lost his damn cot. They took the man to the room and he was placed on Pike’s cot. Shiro then went to inform their other companions about the guy they found while Block went to gather things to make stamina potions.

Pike was left alone with the new guys and sighed loudly. This was annoying. He wanted his bed back. The man slowly stirred and finally woke up. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“What the hell?” He muttered. “What happened?”

“You almost drowned, I saved you and you tried to kill me.” Said Pike. “You are welcome by the way. What happened to you?”

The man shrugged. “I was just tired… I’ve been awake for a few days. It’s not easy being a ranger.”

“Oh so you really are a ranger? I kind of picked that from your clothes.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what are you? Some kind of thief?”

Pike pouted. “I’m not a thief! I am a cool, super stealthy ninja… I’m Pike by the way. Who are you?”

“Thundar.”

“Thunder?”

“Thundar.”

“What kind of name is Thundar?”

“What kind of name is Pike?”

The two of them glared at each other. The tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. “I don’t think I like you very much.” Said Pike.

“The feeling is mutual.”

***

“Ha! Gaaaaaaaaaay!” Hollered Pidge from over the otherside of the game table.

Lance balked. “What? We are enemies! This is totally the set up for Thundar, dumb name by the way, to become Pike’s rival!”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I’m not good with coming up with names.”

Hunk patted his shoulder. “Thundar’s a good name. I mean, come on. My character’s name is Block.”

“I have to agree with Pidge.” Said Allura. “This does seem like the set up for either a rival’s to friends arch, or a rivals to friends to lovers arch. And I am here for it.” She looked over at Pidge. “That is the right phrasing? I am here for it?”

Pidge nodded. “Yep. Either that or big mood.”

“We are rivals!” Whined Lance.

Shiro shook his head. “Come on guys, let’s get back to the game.”

“Agreed.” Said Coran. “Oka, well we have spent enough time with Thundar and Pike. Allura, what is Valayun doing?”

As Allura went on to describe what her archer was doing, Lance leaned over to Keith and whispered. “Pidge totally ruined our character arch.”

Keith rolled his eyes and whispered back. “Relax. Thundar will do a bunch of things that will annoy the hell out of Pike. It’d say two or three sessions before Thundar starts developing feelings for Pike.”

“Good.” Lance laced his fingers with Keith’s under the table and smiled at him. Keith smiled back and they turned their attention back to the game.


	2. Plants

The party had just finished a rather stressful battle in the realm of the Underdark where they fought a necromancer and his pet undead beholders. Block was doing his best to heal the party, but he had used up most of his spell slots for the day and needed a long rest if he was going to be able to cast any more spells.

So everyone gathered around the campfire to eat, talk, and share healing balms with one another. Meklavar was insisting she was a tough barbarian dwarf and didn’t need no stinking healing. Valayun patted her back and Meklarver immediately vomited blood, so she gave Valayun some healing potions to stabilize her.

Thundar had gathered an assortment of herbs and plants through their travels in the Underdark and was trying to figure out if any of it could get turned into healing potions. Pike was looking over his shoulder and tried to help him out, though it wasn’t going very well.

“That’s yarrow weed. You can’t make a healing potion out of that.” Said Pike.

“Yarrow weed doesn’t grow in the Underdark.” Said Thundar. “This is tarrow root.”

“Yarrow weed.”

“Tarrow root.”

“Yarrow weed.”

“Tarrow root.”

Meklarver rolled her eyes. “Ladies please, you’re both beautiful. So shut up.”

Thundar rolled his eyes and poked Pike. “Look, I am proficient in medicine. I know what I am doing.”

“I aM pRoFiCiEnT iN mEdIcInE!” Mocked Pike. “Look, that’s yarrow weed.”

Thundar rolled his eyes and tossed it aside. “Whatever. Stop annoying me. I need to look through everything else.” Pike pouted and continued to look over his shoulder. It was very annoying and Thundar was three ticks away from turning around and punching Pike right in the face because holy shit he didn’t need this bastard breathing down his neck.

Luckily for the both of the Block had just finished cooking a tasty soup for them to eat and they were able to sit down and enjoy it. Block always made good soup damn good healing soup. Thundar could already feel his health and mana increasing with every spoonful.

“This is pretty good.” Said Valayun. “Where did you find the ingredients?”

“Oh, just here and there.” Said Block. “Nothing crazy. Most of it I had hidden away in the bag of many treasures.” He held the bag up and it blinked at them.

Meklarver took the bag off of him and shook it a few times. “Come on, spit out something useful. I know Shiro purchased some healing potions!”

“I used those after Thudar set off that spike trap.” He reminded her.

Meklarver groaned in annoyance, but continued to shake the bag anyway. “Come on… You gotta have something useful in you. Something. Anything. Work with me!” The bag spat out kindling for the fire. “... Bastard. That’s it! I’m counting my loot! Y'all can’t be trusted with your own finances!”

Thundar rolled his eyes and went back to sorting out his herbs in peace while Pike was distracted. He had a lot of rotting fungus, poison moss, fireproof moss, and tarrow root. Not yarrow weed that you very much. Pike was a dumbass.

He started to put things into different groups when he felt Pike watching him again. “... Pike.”

“Yes?”

“For the past fucking time it is tarrow root, yout yarrow weed.”

“No way. Totally yarrow weed.”

“Tarrow root.”

“Yarrow weed.”

“Tarrow root.”

“Why don’t you both eat it?” Asked Valayun. “I can heal the both of you if you like? If it is indeed something poisonous?”

“Fine!” Pike grabbed some of the tarrow root and held it up to Thundar’s face. “Eat it! We’ll eat it on three!”

“... Fine!” Thundar grabbed some of it from him.

Meklarver grinned. “One, two, three!” Both shoved the plant into their mouths and quickly ate it.

***

Coran sighed heavily and massaged his temples. “You two… You two just… You really did that? Lance, can you please roll for medicine and Keith can you please roll a constitution check?” The two of them quickly rolled their dice.

“Can I roll for medicine?” Asked Hunk.

“Sure. Go ahead.” Said Coran. Hunk rolled high and twirled his moustache. “Wonderful. Block, you recognise that the plant is indeed tarrow root.”

“Ha!” Said Keith.

“However!” Said the moustache man quickly. “How much tarrow root did you eat Keith?”

“... Lance, how much did you give me?”

“A quarter of the original bundle.”

Coran flinched and looked at his constitution roll again and looked at Lance’s roll. He sighed heavily. “So, about thirty ticks after you swallow the tarrow root the two of you run off in opposite directions of the campfire as large sprigs of untreated tarrow root acts as… a laxative.”

Pidge was holding her sides as she desperately tried and failed not to laugh. “Oh my god! Are you serious? You two idiots are just shitting yourselves now! Ha!”

Keith glared at Lance. “Are you serious? You really did that? Why?”

“Well Pike is stubborn and he used to be the one that gathered everything.” Said Lance. “He’s still trying to one up you.”

“And art imitates life.” Mused Pidge

Suddenly the castle ship’s alarm when off and everyone quickly got to their feet. “We’ll have to cut this session short.” Said Shiro. “Everyone, to your lions.”

The Paladin’s nodded and quickly ran to their lions. Keith still glaring at Lance. “You better give me something cool to make up for making Thundar get diarrhea.” 

“I’ll consider it after we save shoot down whatever’s shooting us.”


	3. A Knife!

Through a series of convoluted events, the party was forced into an archery tournament in the town of Etherdale.The only ones proficient with using a bow and arrow were Valayun and Thundar. So they both entered the competition. They needed to win it to get the grand prize, which was enchanted armor. They needed to trage the armor for a map from a creepy looking goblin man in a tavern two towns over.

Thundar was practicing his skills out in an open field while Pike watched him. The weirdo had started to grow on him over their many weeks of adventuring together. Sure Pike was an asshole, but he was kind of fun to be around.

He shot an arrow at a tree next to Pike and made him jump. “Hey! Watch where you’re shooting those!”

“Relax. I know what’s doing.” Said Thundar. “I’ll win us that enchanted armor.”

“My money is on Valayun.” Said Pike. “She’s a lot better at shooting arrows than you are.”

“Oh? Want a bet?”

“Sure.” Pike hummed and drummed their fingers on their knee. “Let’s see… You got a lot of gold for doing that little hunting thing, right?”

“Yeah?”

“If Allura wins then you give me all your gold.”

Thundar rolled his eyes. “Yeah, your soul motivation is money.”

“There are worse things to be motivated by.” Said Pike. “What do you want if you win? My money?”

“I don’t want your money. I’m not that interested in money. I want something else.”

That seemed to perk Pike’s interest a little. “Oh? You want something else?” They stood up and dusted themselves off. “Hmm, now what could interest you? What could the scary ranger possibly want?” He happily walked over to Thundar and batted his eyelashes at him. It made the heat rise in his cheeks. “What does the great Thundar want?”

“Your knife.” He said quickly.

“... My knife?” Asked Pike in confusion. He took his knife out of his pocket and turned it over in his hands. “You want my knife? This knife? The knife I have in my hands right now?”

“... Yes?” Honestly it was just the first thing that he thought of. Now he had to justify wanting the knife. “It looks practical and it’s well balanced. Looks good for bleeding animals out.”

“Well you aren’t wrong…” Muttered Pike. “Deal. I’m totally going to take all your money when Valayun wins!” He shook Thundar’s hand to seal the deal.

***

The tournament was pretty hectic. Pike, Block, Meklavar, and Shiro happily sat in the grandstand while Thundar and Valayun were mingling and competing with the other contestants. There were a few rounds of normal shooting and what not. Thundar and Valayun easily climbed in the rankings of the competition up to the final round.

“They’re doing really well.” Said Shiro. “One of them is bound to win the armor.”

“And if they don’t we can steal it.” Said Pike.

Shiro glared at him. “No.”

“It was just a joke.”

“Really?”

“... Maybe?”

Meklavar rolled her eyes. “The armor is enchanted. No freaking way we can steal it from someone if they put it on.”

Pike frowned. “So you’re saying we have to kill them?”

“Please no killing…” Said Block.

“We shouldn’t kill them if they win fair and square.” Said Shiro. “We might be able to bargain with them? We still have some of those stones of purification?”

Maklavar glared at him. “You can have my stones when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.”

“It was just a suggestion.” Muttered Shiro.

“Oh it’s Valayun’s turn!” Said Block excitedly.

The group watched as she shot three arrows at moving targets. The arrows hit all three moving targets. The targets were enchanted and exploded when she hit them. She fired three more arrows but missed one. All in all she hit 5 out of the 6 targets. She bowed to the judges and everyone cheered.

Pike grinned and rubbed his hands together. “That’s our girl. I’m about to be fifty gold richer.”

“Why? Asked Block.

Maklaver rolled her eyes. “Pike made a bet with Thundar. If Valayun wins the competition then Thundar gives Pike all his gold. If Thundar wins then Pike has to give him his knife.”

Pike grinned. “Yep, and we all know how awesome Valayun is so there is no way I’m losing my knife. I’m about to get richer.”

It was Thundar’s turn to shoot. He quickly fired five arrows. He hit four of the five targets. Pike was practically cackling right now. If they tied then no one won, but if he missed this one then he was going to get richer. There was no way he could lose.

Thundar looked down at his arrow then up at the targets. He only had one arrow left. He quickly lined up his shot, took a deep breath, and let it go. The arrow flew through the air, hit the first target, it exploded into glitter, but the arrow kept flying and hit the target that he had missed before. Thundar hit all six targets. He won. The crowd went wild. Block and Maklaver were losing their shit. Shiro cheered for him. Valayun hugged Thundar tightly and spun him around. Pike lamented the loss of his knife.

***

Thundar didn’t want Pike’s knife. He really didn’t. But after he came over to the group with the enchanted armor Pike just shoved it into his hands and stormed off. He felt bad. Before they left Shiro and Block wanted to check out the markets. Thundar wandered off to find the blacksmith.

He bought some enchanted arrowtips for himself and asked about enchanting the knife Pike gave him. All it cost him was twenty gold and a breeze element shard. It was whisper quiet, light as a feather, and returned to the thrower’s hand with the snap of their fingers. It just needed to attune to their handler first.

Thundar easily found Pike trying to flirt with some women by the fountain. “Pike!” The women quickly left and headed off so they could talk in private.

Pike looked over at him and his ears flattened against his head. “What do you want?”

“...” Thundar took the knife out of his pocket and handed it back. “Here. I’m not versed enough in knives to use it. Thought it would be better off if you had it.”

Pike was suspicious and took the knife from him. He looked at it and frowned. “This isn’t my knife…”

“Yeah. I kind of got it enchanted.” He muttered. “I had some element shards left over from when he fought the elemental titans… Thought you would like it? I can get it unenchanted if you like?”

“... No, I’ll keep it.” Said Pike. “No take backs.”

***

“Aww that’s cute.” Cooed Pidge. “Thundar’s totally crushing on Pike.”

“Thundar isn’t crushing on Pike.” Insisted Keith. “He just… He isn’t proficient with knives.”

“Sure.”

A ding rang out from the kitchen and Hunk got up. “The cookies are done.”

“Shall we call it an evening?” Asked Allura.

Coran nodded and turned off his datapad. “Sounds like a good idea. You’ve managed to get the enchanted armor and now you can get the map to continue your quest. Allura, Keith, you two did really well in the competition. Smart move using your Lucky feat to get both those targets Keith.”

Keith shrugged. “It was nothing. If I didn’t win Allura would have.” 

The group packed their things and headed to the kitchen to get some cookies. Lance and Keith hung back a little to talk a little more privately. 

Lance smiled and lightly nudged Keith’s arm. “I thought you sold all your elemental shards?”

“... I sold most of them, but you kind of whined that you didn’t find anything useful.” Said Keith. “So I just thought since I won your knife I could make it better? I don’t have the levels to use a knife like that anyway.”

“Aww, thanks man.” Lance quickly looked around and when he was sure no one was looking, he quickly kissed Keith’s cheek.

Keith went bright red. “If-if you’re going to kiss just for giving your game character what are you going to do when I save your ass in a fight against a dragon?”

Lance shrugged and smirked. “Probably blow you in the training room.”

“... Seriously?”

“You’ll have to defeat a dragon to find out.”


	4. Mud crab

Due to a series of mistakes the party had gotten split up. Valayun and Shiro had been hit with a time spell and had been sent off into the future to where they would meet up with the party later on (in real life Allura and Shiro were at the swap moon buying stuff). Block and Meklavar had been sent to the Mountains of Elwhip. Pike and Thundar were lost in the Melnor marsh.

Thundar was blaming Pike for this. “If you didn’t steal that stone we wouldn’t be here.” He muttered.

Pike pouted as he carefully walked through the treetops. “Dude, I took it because it was valuable but the old fart wouldn’t fork it over.”

Thundar huffed and trudged through the mud below. He didn’t want to go up and try to climb through the trees. He stuck with walking through the mud and sticking to the patches of land he wouldn’t sink in. “Fuck off.”

“Shut up and get in the tree.”

“You get on the ground.”

“Stop being stubborn and get in the tree!”

“Fuck you!”

The two of them continued to argue and didn’t notice something was slowly moving towards them in the mud. Suddenly a huge crab burst through the mud and started waving their claws at them. Thundar got knocked back into a tree and Pike managed to throw a knife at it, though it didn't seem to do shit to it.

“... Shit!”

With the monster’s attention on him, Pike had no choice but to jump and run as best as he could through the trees. It worked for a while until he didn’t have any more trees to run to. He looked back at the giant crab and saw it was about to attack.

Pike braced himself for the inevitable hit when an arrow flew through the air and shattered the crab;s claw off its body instead. They let out an angered roar in anger. Pike looked over at Thundar. The crazy half elf was hanging upside down in one of the trees with a bow and arrow in hand. He shot a few more arrows at the crab, missed a few shots but did manage to shoot three of the monster’s legs off.

While the crab was distracted Pike quickly rummaged through his bag and found an enchanted bomb. Perfect. He smirked and quickly tied some rope around the tree and his stomach. “Hey! Claws for brains! Over here!”

When the crab looked over at him Pike swung from the tree and managed to throw the bomb into the crab’s mouth, narrowly avoiding his tail getting cut off in the process. Unfortunately the crab did manage to cut the rope and Pike went flying through the air, right into Thundar.

The two of them crashed into each other and ended up in a muddy heap on the ground. On the plus side the crab blew up. Chunks of crab came flying down from the heavens which caused the both of them to feel relieved and slightly disturbed. 

“... Did you waste an armor piercing arrow on a fucking crab?” Asked Pike.

“Did you waste a bomb on a crab?” Asked Thundar.

Pike huffed as he sat on top of Thundar. “Excuse me? But my bomb killed them. I think I won that fight.”

“It almost killed you!” Snapped Thundar.

“It would have just punted me! I would have been fine!”

“You’re insufferable!”

“You’re a jerk!”

“Why are you always like this? I’m just trying to help you!”

Pike rolled his eyes. “I don’t need your help!”

“Everyone needs help every once in a while!” Snapped Thundar. “You’re happy to get help from everyone else! Is it because I just joined the team? Because I’m not some pretty bimbo you can flirt with?”

“I don’t flirt with everyone!”

“Yes you do!” Yelled Thundar. He sighed and let his arms fall back into the mud. “... I’m sorry I don’t have tits you can drool over like other girls. I’m sorry I’m not friendly like everyone you travel with… I just want to help…”

“... Do you think I hate you or something?”

“What else can I think?” Asked Thundar. “Out of everyone on the team you seem to hate me the most… Is it because I’m a half elf or something? I’m trying really hard here...”

“... Thundar.” Pike sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Trying to get some of the mud off himself. “Look, I was just playing around. I don’t hate you man… You’re… You’re nice.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you are… Thanks for helping out there…” Pike got off Thundar and helped him to his feet. He gently brushed some of the mud off his clothes. “Look, I can see how my usual charming self might have been taken as a little abrasive… I thought we were just joking around. I don’t really have the same banter with you as I do with the rest of the party…”

“... So you being a dick was you having a bit of fun?” Asked Thundar. 

“Yeah… I know, I’m shit.”

“Yeah, you’re shit.” Said Thundar. “... But shit is still useful.” He lightly punched Pike in the shoulder. “Come on man. Let’s get out of this stupid marsh.”

Pike smiled a little and followed him. He yelped a little when he lost his footing. Thundar reached out and grabbed his arm. The two of them slipped a little and Thundar almost ended up on top of Pike. Though they ended up with their chests pressed together. They face’s inches away from each other.

There was a beat of silence between them as they just stared at each other. Sure they were both soaked in marsh water and mud, and they should have been disgusted with each other at that moment… But they weren’t. Pike was enamoured by this broody, half elf, ranger… And by the look in Thundar’s eyes, he seemed to feel the same way. Pike gently cupped his face and gently tried to pull himself closer to Thundar’s lips.

***

“FINALLY!” Yelled Pidge. “Sure they were kissing in a stinky marsh, but finally!”

Lance rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at them. “Shut up. The mood was right!”

“Aw, it’s romantic.” Said Hunk. “So are Pike and Thundar a couple now?”

Lance and Keith looked at each other before they answered at the same time. “Yes.”

Coran grinned, but it wasn’t a happy grin. It was an evil grin. “Well, this is going to be very, very interesting. I’m already coming up with scenarios that will challenge this newly blossoming relationship.”

“Anyway, can we switch over to Hunk and me now?” Asked Pidge. “I’m getting a little antsy.”

“Of course.” Said Coran happily. He cleared his throat and went back into game master mode. “The icy winds howl and snow whips around your faces-”

As Coran set the scene for Hunk and Pidge, Lance and Keith relaxed next to each other on the couch while sharing fond looks with each other. It was nice that their characters were dating too.


	5. MTI

The party had split up to look for supplies in the Dwarven city of Arknok. Meklavar had dragged Thundar away to look at weapons. Valayun and Block were going to get supplies. Shiro and Pike were… Well Shiro was making sure Pike didn’t steal anything. Mostly.

They wandered around and looked at all the stalls. Pike saw several shiny things that he liked and that he thought Thundar might like, bit Shiro was always quick to stop him by asking; “What are you doing?” Damn perceptive Paladin. Eventually they ended up sitting at a fountain and waiting for the others to finish up. It was then that Shiro decided to have a heart to heart talk with him.

“So… You and Thundar huh?”

Pike grinned. “Yeah.”

Shiro nodded. “And you’re not leading him down a path of less than noble means?”

Pike suddenly felt like this was an interrogation. Shiro and Thundar ended up having a bonding moment when they got lost in the foggy maze of wandering souls. They stuck together and were able to overcome their slight perceived differences out there and well, despite Thundar being older since he was a half elf, Shiro had become like a big brother to Thudar and took him under his wing.

It had its benefits of course. It really helped integrate Thundar into the party, however it meant that Shiro had become protective of him… Which meant that once Pike and Thundar started dating Shiro was not very pleased. He went full big brother mode and started separating the two during missions. They hadn’t spent any time together alone since the mud crab incident (Shiro had justified keeping them apart to Coran as part of his Paladin’s code. Some BS about purity and not wanting to risk his teammates tainting their souls and giving into temptation. In other words, Shiro was cockblocking them in game). 

Pike laughed nervously. “I um… I… I like him?”

“You know that is not what I mean.” Said Shiro. “You’re a good person… Um… Cat person? But you aren’t a very virtuous person. You’re a thief.”

“Cool ninja!”

“You’re a ninja thief.” Said Shiro with a slight smile. “But look, Thundar is a really nice guy, and he hasn’t had much interaction with other people… So I don’t want you doing anything underhanded to him.”

“What me? Oh ye of little faith Shiro.” Squawked Pike. “I would do no such thing. I actually like Thundar… He’s smart, funny, patient, and a good person… I like him. He makes me want to be a better person… He isn’t materialistic so he’s really not impressed when I try to give him gold and jewels.”

“... So you’re stealing less?” Asked Shiro hopefully.

Pike snorted. “What? Well, I’m not stealing money anymore.”

“That’s good.”

“I’m stealing weapons now and things to make arrows and stuff for him.”

“Oh no…”

“Yeah! You want to see what I managed to-?”

“Nope!” Said Shiro quickly. “Don’t want to know! Don’t want to hear it!”

Pike rolled his eyes. Shiro was much too virtuous when it came to these kinds of things. Shiro would always reprimand him when he stole anything. Even when he stole something they needed, like a key from a guard. But he was slowly easing up on him. Pike saw that as an absolute win.”

“We’re back!” Called Block as he walked over with Valayun. “We got so many sausages. They have an amazing supply of sausages and cheeses.”

“Bread and ale too.” Chimed in Valayun. “Where are Meklavar and Thundar?”

“Here!” Called Meklavar. Above her head she was carrying a new war hammer and had a mad gleam in her eyes. “Thorack’s hammer! A hammer infused with the spirits of lightning and storms! Typhoons and hurricanes!”

“They still need to attune to it.” Said Thundar. “It’ll be a few days before they can use it.”

“But when I can…” Maklavar laughed like a maniac. “I’m gonna destroy everything in my path!”

Block sighed. “Well, we’re all going to die.”

Valayun chuckled. “Well we should think about what we are going to do for lodging for the night.”

“That tavern the merchant recommended might be good?” Suggested Block. 

Meklaver pouted. “Well, there’s also a much nicer tavern a little further up and like… you know… Could give two certain lovers a chance to be all gross together and stop looking at each other like they are pining for one another. Again.”

Thundar looked hopefully at Pike. Pike smiled back. Both of them were tried for walking for so long, but just being able to sleep in the same bed together would be nice. Much better than pushing their bedrolls together. Though it was nice sleeping under the stars together.

Shiro quickly spotted the look the two of them were sharing and cleared his throat. “So three to a room like usual? Thundar, Block, and I will take one room. Maklavar, Valayun, and Pike will take the other.”

“Oh come on!” Whined Pike. “You think Thundar and I will start touching and doing stuff if we’re sleeping in the same room together?”

“We aren’t desperately horny you know.” Muttered Thundar.

Pike needed to think fast. He quickly ran over to Thundar and grabbed his arm. “Sorry guys but we gotta go!” Thundar quickly got the hind and ran with him into the crowd. “We’ll catch up later!”

“PIKE!!!” Yelled Shiro as Maklaver laughed her ass off.

***

After the session Pidge stuck around to fix up her character sheet. Update her stats and all that. Everyone else had wandered off except for Coran. Coran was also going through his own stuff. He looked like he was thinking very hard about something.

“Something up Coran?”

“Well, now that Pike and Thundar are dating in game, I was thinking I might need to reimplement my usual rule set for sexual encounters in game.” Said Coran. “Though it’s usually for players interacting with NPC characters… Should still work for two PC characters.”

Pidge frowned a little. “You have a system?”

Coran nodded. “Yep.” He quickly started to list things off. “A strength roll is to see who is the dom and sub, acrobatics for how adventurous they are, performance for how into it you are, and when applicable, medicine.”

“Medicine?”

Coran nodded. “Yes. It was put in place after I was involved with a terrible M&M group where we had a murder hobo that would either kill or um… so very non consensual sexual things to the female NPCs…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, we implemented the medicine roll to see if you contracted an MTI.”

“A what?”

“A Magically Transmitted Infection.” Said Coran with a hint of pride. “It was fun watching him realise there were consequences to their actions. They didn’t stay very long in the game after that. Good riddance. They were ruining everything for everyone else.”

“Makes sense… So they would get a disadvantage or something until they got to a doctor?” Asked Pidge.

Coran nodded. “Yep.”

Pidge hummed a little. “Interesting… So could Pike potentially get crabs when Thundar doesn’t?”

“... Then Thundar would have given Pike crabs.”

Pidge started to cackle. “Oh I love this. This is gonna be so good!” Pidge was hoping that Pike and Thundar would get into a situation where they would have sexy times, just to see if one of them gives an MTI to the other.


	6. Purity police

The party had managed to venture into a town that was celebrating a strange festival to their deity. Which just so happened to be the same deity that Shiro worshiped, and being the good paladin he was, he had to participate in the festivities.

Meklavar and Pike went to talk to some townsfolk about what the whole event was about. They found an older woman selling wreaths. Pike knew this song and dance, so he bought a wreath from her. 

“So… What is this whole celebration about?” He asked.

The woman smiled at him. “Oh, well this is the festival of purity. It’s a time where we offer our wreaths and prayers as an offering to the deity, the goddess Lalaluna.”

(Out of game Shiro got into an argument with Coran about Lalaluna being the name of his goddess. He argued that it sounded kind of dumb. Coran brought up the manual and showed Shiro a list of deities that already existed in the Monsters and Manna universe. Shiro’s personality and values lined up more with Lalaluna than any of the other gods, goddesses or gender neutral goo things out there. Shiro reluctantly accepted Lalaluna as his Lord and saviour.)

“Lalaluna, huh?” Asked Meklavar. “Our paladin friend here, Shiro, worships Lalaluna.”

“Oh, a paladin you say? How many are in your group?”

“Including me and Pike here? Six.” 

They nodded and gathered a few more wreaths for them. “Here. Take these on the house.”

“Thanks.” Meklavar picked up the wreaths and smiled. “So we just go and burn them?’

“Oh yes, there is a sacrificial fire in the temple.” They gestured to a temple where some people were lining up with their own wreaths.

“Thanks.” Meklaver and Pike walked back to the group, though Pike was whining that he had to pay for his wreath while Meklaver got five for free because Shiro’s a paladin.

“I lost a copper! A damn copper!”

“You’re going to steal that back from someone eventually.”

“... You know what? You’re right. Hey guys!” Pike ran over to everyone else. “We got wreaths!”

“Wreaths?” Questioned Valayun.

Shiro smiled. “Good work guys. Do you want to participate in the ceremony?”

“Are we allowed to?” Asked Block. “I don’t want to offend anyone or like, do something and set everything on fire…”

Thundar frowned. “Would the Earth Mother be mad at me for participating in another person’s religious event?”

(Pidge had scolded Keith for calling Lady Olukariynor the one with all and one with none… Earth Mother. Keith shrugged it off because it was too damn long to remember. He preferred calling it Earth Mother. Pidge went off on a rant about how they should be called Earth Mother. Pidge was close to whacking Keith in the face with a manual.)

“It should be fine.” Said Shiro. “Lalaluna welcomes all. You guys participating won’t mean you’re suddenly converting.”

“Good. The Earth Mother would get pissed.”

Shiro frowned and crossed his arms, not looking too impressed. “Thundar, this is the celebration of purity. So no swearing. In fact…” He borrowed Hunk’s staff and very gently nudged Pike and Thundar away from each other. “Stay at least five feet away from each other at all times.”

“... This is the worst kind of discrimination.” Grumbled Pike. “Discrimination against me.”

Thundar didn’t look too happy either. “Seriously?”

Shiro nodded. “Yes.”

Meklavar snickered and looked up at Block. “Purity Paladin?”

Block nodded in agreement. “Purity Paladin.”

“I would like to participate in the ceremony.” Said Valayun. She took a wreath off of Meklavar and smiled. “This seems very interesting.”

“Sure. If you want to join in I’m going to head to the temple now.” Shiro also took a wreath from Meklavar and happily headed to the temple to be a part of the ceremony. Block, Meklavar, and Valayun followed Shiro.

Meklavar had left Pike with the two extra wreaths, so he put it on Thundar’s head. “Here.”

Thundar raised an eyebrow. “Thanks? I think?”

“Aw, come on Thundar. You look cute… And speaking of cute, Shiro’s distracted. You know what this means?”

It took a few seconds but Thundar quickly got the idea. “Yeah, I think I know what this means.”

The two were about to run off when someone grabbed hold of Pike’s tail and pulled. Pike yelped and quickly turned around to see a small tiefling girl holding a teddy. “Mr Kitty, where are you going? The temple is that way.”

“Oh, well my friend and I were going to um… Spend a little time alone doing some um…”

“Reflecting?” Suggested Thundar. “A bit of meditating?”

“Yes. That.”

The girl didn’t seem very convinced by this. “You two weren’t going to do anything bad were you? Because everyone’s gotta stay a few feet away from each other. You have to make room for Lalaluna.”

Thundar frowned. “What bad things did you think we were going to do?”

“...” She gestured for the two of them to lean in closer so they could whisper to them. “Hold hands.”

Pike gasped in shock. “The scandal! Thundar! You wouldn’t dare hold my hand on such a day as this would you? That’s so naughty!”

Thundar rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll leave room for Lalaluna.”

The little girl still eyed them suspiciously. “Hmmmmm…”

“Where are your parents?” Asked Pike.

She pointed up at the temple. “Mama and Papa work at the temple. We already burned our wreaths. I’m making sure people remember to burn their wreaths. You two have wreaths so you gotta go and burn them.” She was using puppy dog eyes on him and Pike was caving in. “You gotta go and do it. For Lalaluna!”

“Well… You see…”

Thundar quickly cut him off. “We shall head there now. Thank you for reminding us.” The girl grinned and quickly ran off to make sure other people were going to the temple. Thundar and Pike made their way over to the table and Pike was smirking at him like a cheshire cat. It annoyed the half elf a little. “What are you smiling at?”

“You’re a big softy.” Cooed Pike. “Big scary half elf ranger has a soft spot for children? Should we adopt? We’re adopting a dragonborn.”

Thundar looked at Pike like he was an idiot. “Pike, we haven’t even had a chance to mess around with the Purity Paladin telling us to make room for Lalaluna… And now we’re in a whole village full of Purity Paladin’s that want us to make room for Lalaluna. We can suck this up for a little while.”

“Yeah… But I wanted to have some special alone time with you for once… Lalaluna can join in too if she wants.”

Thundar rolled his eyes and joined the line with the other worshipers. “Pretty sure that’s a blaspheme.”

Pike pouted and rolled his eyes. “Dude, I don’t even believe in a god.”

“And now you’re also insulting the Earth Mother.” Said Thundar. “That’s just rude.”

“Oh come on. You know I’m just joking babe.” He held Thundar’s hand and gently squeezed. “I’d never insult the Earth Mother. I know that that’s a big part of-” He was suddenly whacked in the back a thin stick. “Ow!”

An older looking woman glared at them and gestured with her stick for them to move apart. “Make room for Lalaluna.” She muttered as she continued to walk.

Pike threw his hands up in disbelief. “Purity Paladins! The lot of them!”

***

Pidge was rolling around in laughter. “I can’t believe it. A whole fucking village of these guys! A whole village of cockblockers! Ha! Get wrecked Lance!”

Lance pouted and crossed his arms. “Pike and Thundar deserve to get their dicks wet! Hashtag; let them fuck! You agree with me, right Keith?” 

“Umm… No offence but fucking in an RPG seems kind of weird to me…” He muttered. “Like, even if it isn’t graphic it just seems like something on a checklist. This is why I always hated RPG games that force you to have a partner because there’s some plot reason for it. It’s dumb.”

Lance gasped in shock. “But those are some of the best parts in an RPG!”

“I have to agree with Keith here.” Said Pidge. “Let me be a single bad ass, ya bastards!”

Hunk shrugged. “As long as it isn’t graphic it isn’t a big deal for me. I’m a softy. I like cute romances in my games.”

Lance huffed and sunk into his seat. “I hate you all.”

Allura frowned and looked over at Shiro. “Is romance that big of a deal for humans both in game and out?”

“For some humans it is.” Said Shiro. “A little bit of romance is okay. Even just implied stuff is kind of okay. It’s fine. Really… But in a group game like this everyone needs to be comfortable and have fun. Not just you Lance.”

Lance pouted some more. “Pike deserves to get laid. He deserves it. He’s been a good ninja.”

Pidge smirked. “In other words, you’re not getting laid in this universe so you’re bringing your horny to the game?”

“... Shut up Pidge.”


	7. Wagon

With the wind in their hair and the outpost behind them, Pike sighed contently and leaned back in the wagon. They had been given a new quest to travel to the next outpost to deliver supplies. Meklavar and Shiro were taking turns driving the wagon. Block attempted to make friends with the horses, but he ended up getting headbutted and ignored. Thundar was was taking a break while Pike and Valayun didn’t even bother trying to see if they could befriend the horses.

Pike hummed a little as he watched Block and Thundar play some game on the back of a supply crate. While they were distracted Pike was working with Valayun to make arrowheads. She was a lot better at it than Pike was, obviously, but Pike wanted to get better at it.

“You’re doing pretty well.” Said Valayun. 

“Thanks.”

“Why did you want to learn how to make arrowheads anyway?”

Pike glanced over to Thundar. He was still engrossed in this game with Block. “No reason…”

She looked over at Thundar and chuckled. “Ah, okay. Well, I’m pretty sure that he isn’t going to be very happy to be called no reason.”

Pike rolled his eyes and lightly nudged her arm. “Hush up Val… I know I’m the cool ninja and everything, but I want to be able to make stuff for Thundar too instead of just stealing them...”

“I’m sure he will appreciate it… Though I have a feeling you aren’t buying him arrows so you keep more money…”

“... You know, you don’t have to say it like that.” Muttered Pike. “But yeah, it’s true… I want to buy him something really nice one day. Maybe some armor? A new cape? … An earring? Something nice.”

“Lance, you know Thundar does not care for trinkets like that.”

“I know, but I want him to have something nice because I like him… And he hasn’t grown up with nice stuff like most of us. I want him to have something nice.”

She smiled and put her hand on Pike’s. “I know… If you like, I can help you make a leather hand. I have a few strips and some beads we can thread onto it.”

“That would be awesome. Thanks Valayun.”

Suddenly Meklavar pulled on the reins and slowed them all to a complete stop. “Whoa there.” She said.

“What’s up Meklavar?” Asked Block.

Their berserker pointed off into the distance. “There’s something over there… I think. I think I saw some smoke or like, a small flash of light.”

Thundar frowned and squinted off in the direction they were pointing. “... Kobolds. Ten of them… Maybe more.”

Shiro frowned. “There’s probably a dungeon nearby. They don’t usually come out during the day like this.”

“Should we take care of them now?” Asked Valayun while she reddied her bow.

“Thay could be friendly.” Said Block. “We have met a few friendly Kobold’s before back in the Emerald city.”

“I can stealth a little closer?” Suggested Pike.

“Good idea.” Said Block. “Take this.” He passed Pike a listening stone. A rock they could use to listen in on other conversations, but they couldn’t talk through. Block could translate most languages but he wasn’t very stealthy.

Pike grabbed the stone and very carefully stealthed his way over towards the kobolts. He stayed low and held the stone out. The kobolts talked in their hisses and growls for a fair few minutes before Pike quickly headed back to the wagon.

“All good?”

“The Kobold's are moving treasure to their new nest. Apparently it’s guarded by a red dragon.” Said Block. “So they are moving lots of gold and gems there.”

“... Gems?” Asked Pike as his eyes lit up.

Meklavar rolled her eyes. “Is it anywhere near where we need to go?”

“It’s a little out of the way, but we could find it on the way back.”

Thundar frowned. “Yeah, this is probably something we should deal with. Having a red dragon around is probably not a good idea.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “Yeah, red dragons aren’t good to have around… Could cause some trouble for everyone in the future… Alright team, all in favour of finding the red dragon after we hit the outpost?”

“I’m in.” Said Meklavar.

“Me too.” Said Valayun.

“Heck yeah!” Said Pike.

“Sounds fun.” Said Thundar.

“All opposed?” Asked Shiro.

“Me…” Muttered Block. “Red dragons are scary.”

Shiro frowned a little. “Well, maybe if we talk to the people at the outpost we might be able to get some supplies to take down the red dragon. Sound fair?”

Block frowned a little and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s okay…”

Pike laughed and wrapped his arm around Block’s shoulder. “Come on man, where’s your sense of adventure?”

“I think I left it at the last outpost…”

Meklavar grinned and nudged him. “Don’t be like that. We;ll drop the supplies off and go slay the dragon. It’ll be fun.”

***

Coran yawned loudly. “Oh dear. Sorry Paladin’s, and Princess. I think I might be coming down with something… Might have picked something up when we were on Bictroy7 the other movement.”

“Do you need some assistance going to the medbay?” Asked Allura.

“I’d appreciate that.” Said Coran as he stood up. “Now remember where we are and what we are doing. Outpost and then the dragon.”

Everyone agreed and started to pack things up. But Lance suddenly paused. “Wait… How does Coran know what dragons are anyway?”

Hunk and Pidge grinned. “We’ve been showing Coran some earth monsters.” Said Hunk. “We were talking to him about dragons and fairies. Coran was interested in incorporating some Earth creatures into the campaign.”

“We told him a lot about mythological creatures and different religious figures.” Said Pidge.

Keith frowned. “Does this mean we’re going to fight Jesus at some point?”

Shiro face palmed. “Please tell me we aren’t going to fight Jesus.”

“I’m going to fight Jesus.” Said Keith.

Lance snickered. “... Wait, did you introduce Coran to Catholosisim and all the saints?”

“... New campaign idea!” Said Pidge. “Voltron verses the Catholics!”

“As long as I can punch Jesus I don’t care.” Said Keith.


	8. Bolt

With a final blow from Meklavar’s fancy hammer, the red dragon was slain. The group was ecstatic, if not badly beaten. Thundar was passed out on the ground and Block was doing his best to heal him. Shiro almost died (again), Pike was slightly crispy and Valayun’s bow was broken.

“Ha, we did it!” Cheered Meklavar before she fell over and face planted into a pile of gold. “Let’s just rest here…”

“Agreed…” Muttered Pike as he dusted some of the ash off of his body. “You okay there Thundar?” Thundar raised a hand and gave a thumbs up. “Yeah, he’s fine…” Pike lied back to Meklaver and wheezed out a cloud of ash. “I hate dragons…”

Valayun nodded in agreement. “Dragons are interesting creatures… Well, now that we have the dragon’s treasure, I guess the only responsible thing to do would be to let the people at the outpost know about this…”

“After we check it out.” said Pike. “Like, we could find some good gear in here… Magic stones… some gold for us…”

“He’s right.” Said Meklavar. “We might find something useful. Heck, we might find something important we can give to like a king or a church?”

“She has a point.” Said Shiro. “But we should all rest first.”

“I have some food.” Said Block.

The group was soon treated to a feast of everything soup. Which was just bread soup with some meat and vegetables. Block was a wizard when it came to cooking, even though he was a Cleric. When the group was done eating they all settled down for a long rest. Well, most people did. When everyone was asleep, Pike quickly perked up and went to break Thundar out of his meditative state. The two of them ran around to the other side of the gold pile and settled inside a giant pot. It was big enough for two giants to sit together side by side.

They sat together and Thundar snuggled up to Pike. “You okay? You kind of got burnt pretty badly.”

Pike shrugged. “I got a little toasted, but I slipped on some coins, so it was my fault. But what about you? It stepped on you. You almost died.”

“Well I managed to distract it long enough for Meklavar to kill the dragon. So, it turned out okay. Block managed to heal me enough so I could stand.”

“True… But you still worried me.” Said Pike. He gently cupped Thundar’s face and stared deeply into his eyes. Thundar leaned forward and the two of them kissed. It started off innocently enough, but quickly became heated with their hands all over one another. They started to tug at each other’s clothes. Too many of them were in the way.

***

“Alright.” Said Coran as he looked at Keith and Lance. “Do you two want to proceed with intercourse?”

“I’m game.” Said Lance.

Keith looked over at Shiro. “... Just because it will piss him off I’ll do it.”

Lance pouted. “Really? You know what, I’ll take it.”

Coran shook his head. “Alright you two, I need a few things. I need a strength check, acrobatics check, a performance check, and a stealth check. Roll.”

Lance went first. “19, 6, 16, 18.”

“Did you remember to add your bonuses?” Asked Pidge.

“Oh right.” Lance quickly recalculated. “... 17, 8, 17, 22.”

Coran nodded and looked over at Keith. “Your turn lad.”

Keith quickly rolled his dice and remembered to add the extra numbers. “18, 14, nat 20, 10.”

Coran nodded and took a deep breath. He looked over at everyone else. “Roll perception with disadvantage.”

The three quickly rolled their perception check with disadvantage; 7, 3, 15, 10.

Coran nodded again and took a deep breath. “Okay… alright… This is how things went down. Thundar manages to “take the lead” in this encounter. Pike is a little too cautious while Thundar, being a little more on the wild side, attempts to convince Pike to be a little more adventurous, but you decide to be a little more vanilla for your first time together. The both of you were really into it and the both of you were convinced that the other is into it. You both had a really good time. Though Thundar was a little loud which causes a slight echo in the pot you two are currently… Fornicating in.”

Lance grinned and fistbumped Keith. “Hell yeah. We’re good at sex in game too.”

Pidge slapped Lance with a pillow. “Gross. More info then I needed to know.”

“Tone it down buddy.” Said Hunk.

Coran cleared his throat. “I’m not done yet. Now with the other party… Block, you heard nothing and slept through it all. Same with you Meklevar. Valayun, you stir a little but end up falling back into your meditative state. Shiro… you… um… You heard something and you wake up… You notice that Pike and Thundar are no longer there… You connect the dots.”

Shiro sighed. “Damn it… I just roll over and pretend I didn’t hear anything.”

“Good man.” Said Coran. “Okay, when we get back, Thundar and Pike are dressed again… and go.”

***

Pike smiled a little as he helped put Thundar’s hair back onto a ponytail. “Was that good for you too babe?”

“Hmm, you know it was… I wasn’t too loud, was I?” Asked Thundar. “Shiro’s going to kick our ass for doing premarital sex.”

“Screw him.” Said Pike. “You know, I didn’t think our first time would be in a giant pot…”

Thundar shrugged. “Could have been worse. Could have fucked in the swamp with the mud crab.”

Pike chuckled and grinned. “Yeah, we probably would have died from something. Block would not have been happy about healing us.”

“Yeah, we should go back before one of them wakes up…” Thundar crawled out of the pot and his hand slipped on something. He gasped a little as he slid down the gold pile slightly.

“Shit, are you okay there Thundar?” Asked Pike as he followed after him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Said Thundar. He sat up and looked down at the gemstone he happened to grab when he fell out in the first place. It was dark blue with a glowing blue lightning bolt down the middle. He frowned a little and rubbed it a little.

Suddenly the gemstone heated up. There was a crack of lightning and the stone exploded. In its place was a direwolf with blue streaks streaking its mane. Its big yellow eyes stared at him and Thundar was mesmerised. There was a connection between them. Like this wolf was speaking to him through his mind.

Thundar reached out and touched the animal’s forehead. He felt overwhelming feelings of loyalty, devotion, respect, and admiration. Thundar smiled at them and scratched behind their ears.

“Dude…” Whispered Pike. “That’s an elemental wolf… Back away slowly…”

“He’s not dangerous.” Said Thundar. “Bolt is nice.”

“Bolt?” Questioned Pike. “Did you just…? Never mind…”

“What the fuck is going on over here?” Asked Meklevar as she stomped over a pile of gold followed by the rest of the party. “Holy shit! Is that an elemental wolf? Did you bond with it?”

Thundar shrugged. “Well I’m patting him and Bolt’s not killing me, so I guess?”

Block grinned and looked at Bolt. “Wow, I can’t believe there was an elemental animal in here… Still really cool. You called him Bolt?”

“Yep.”

“Well you better be able to look after him.” Said Shiro. “A pet is a very big responsibility and… Pike, why are you crouched on top of that pot?”

Everyone looked up to see Pike crouched on top of the giant pot looking very uneasy. “No reason…”

Valayune frowned a little before she gasped. “Oh! This is because you’re a Womblax, right? Womblax naturally avoid canine creatures since their ancestors are natural enemies.”

“Aw, the thief is scared of the little canine?” Cooed Meklevar.

Pike hissed at her and stayed perched on top of the pot. The rest of the group shrugged and went back to have their rest. Pike, however, continued to stay on top of the pot and glared at the elemental wolf that happily followed behind Thundar. Thundar had acquired a new pet and was quite happy about it. An elemental wolf would make their adventuring a lot more interesting.

Bolt seemed quite pleased to be with Thundar and oblivious to everyone else around him. He happily sat next to Thundar and curled up by him while wagging his tail. Pike continued to hiss at Bolt and just wasn’t happy with his existence.

***

The session ended there with Keith getting a new, powerful pet. Everyone was happy with him and Lance was talking about how they had awesome ingame sex. Pidge warned him not to act like a neckbeard just because Pike and Thundar fucked once. Lance said he wouldn’t and they ended up going back to their rooms for the evening.

Before Lance could head off to his own room, Keith happened to grab him and pulled him into his room. Lance raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Something up Keith?”

“Hmm, little horny.” Muttered Keith. “Been a while since we’ve had time to do it. Not fair that our characters could fuck but not us.”

Lance grinned and kissed him. “Agreed. Totally not fair. I’m gonna fuck you so hard.” He purred.

Keith smirked. “Oh, you wanna fuck me? Don’t wanna be a good boy and ride me?” He asked. “Come on, maybe if we don’t tire each other out we can go a few rounds.”

“... Dios I love you.” Whispered Lance as he locked Keith’s bedroom door.


	9. Campfire

Bolt had quickly proven himself to be an ally during a fight. More than once the elemental had managed to bring down lightning on their foes. Block had taken up trying to teach Bolt how to play fetch. Bolt just sat there and look at him like he was stupid. Meklavar and Valayun happily patted and combed the elemental wolf’s fur. Bolt seemed to like sniffing Shiro’s weapons when he was cleaning them, and Bolt curled up next to Thundar while he was sleeping.

In other words… Pike was not happy.

He didn’t trust Bolt as far as he could drop him off a cliff and into an abyss. But the repulsive mutt made Thundar happy, and if it made his boyfriend happy… Pike was still pissed off at it. Dogs were the bane of his existence.

During some down time where everyone was just sitting around mending their weapons, armor, or cooking. Pike was keeping an eye on Bolt who was sniffing Shiro’s shield. That mutt was plotting something. Thundar sat by Pike and lightly nudged his arm.

“Something wrong?” He asked.

“Not really… I really don’t like Bolt.” He muttered. “I know that you like him and he is yours but… He really, really freaks me out…”

“Oh…” Thundar frowned and pulled his knees up to his chin. “I’m sorry… I just… We bonded… I didn’t realise that Womblax hated dogs so much…”

Pike shrugged. “It’s an instinctual thing… The ancestors of Womblax and dogs in general have never really been on good terms. So it’s kind of more like I am worried Bolt will turn on me or turn on us and… Well not only is that a dog, but it’s an electric elemental. Like, what the fuck man? I feel like it’s going to bark and electrocute me!”

Thundar chuckled a little. “You don’t have to worry about that. He doesn’t bark lightning.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better…”

“...” Thundar gently held Pike’s hand and gently squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. I’ll try and keep Bolt away from you, though he does kind of like everyone…” 

Pike looked over at Bolt and saw that the animal was now trying to see what Block was cooking. “I guess… Well, he likes you guys, but not me. No way I am spending any alone time with something that was essentially a predator to my ancestors…”

“Right…” Thundar rested his head against Pike’s shoulder. “Pike… I’m sorry about taking Bolt in without asking you about it first…”

“It’s fine babe. I know how much Bolt means to you. I’m not upset about him being here with you because you two have bonded. I’m just… I’m just going to be a little cautious around him. Okay?”

“Okay…” Thundar still seemed a little down about it. Which Pike did not like. 

He wanted to get along with Bolt, but they were… They were a damn dog. A dog and they were… Dogs were mean and smelly. They slobbered and sniffed butts. They were icky and gross and mean. They also had big teeth and liked to bite things. He didn’t want to get bitten by that thing. He was damn sure that giant dog would bite his tail and that would be the end of his perfectly beautiful, well looked after tail. It was one of his best features. Top five. The other in no particular order were; his ears, face, body, and of course his dick.

***

Coran hummed a little as he leaned back in his seat. “So… It seems that Pike really disliked Bolt… Is there anyway that Bolt and Pike could get along? This rift could eventually cause a lot of tension in the group.”

Lance shrugged. “I need to read up a bit more on the history of Womblax and canines.”

Pidge rolled their eyes as they looked through their datapad. “Thought I told you to read up on it before we played this session.”

“We kind of got attacked by two fleets of Zarkon’s troops two days in a row.” Said Lance. “I kind of forgot.”

“That’s reasonable.” Said Hunk. He quickly sent Lance a link. “Here. This is a link to the Womblax, Ulinine wars. It’ll help you flesh out your reasoning for not liking dogs.”

“Thanks man.” Lance quickly opened the link and quickly looked through the PDF file. Looked like there was some discrepancy over gods or something. Perfect, now Lance had to look over religion too.

Pidge’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Ah! I got something! Womblax have been known to become friends with domesticated wolves or dogs in general if they are saved by a dog or are around them for long enough.”

Allura hummed a little as she thought this over. “So, either Bolt saves Pike somehow, or Pike is just around Bolt long enough for him to get used to them?”

Coran thought for a moment and nodded. “Alright, Lance I’m going to need you to read over what Hunk sent you and once you’ve figured out exactly why you specifically dislike dogs then I can come up with a way for Pike and Bolt to become friendly… And depending on what we think is the best way to go about it, we might need to talk to you about this Keith.”

Keith shrugged. “Okay…” He looked over at Lance and narrowed his eyes. “I swear if you get Bolt killed I will kill your character.”

“A little extreme… But okay I guess?” Lance didn’t want his character to die, and he wanted Bolt to die either. Bolt was a cool character, but his character really didn’t like him.

Pidge snickered. “Better start rolling up a new character just in case.” 

Lance pouted. “I/m not going to try and kill Bolt or get Bolt killed.”

Coran cleared his throat. “Anyway, back to the game. Now you’re all still around the campfire just enjoying your time getting ready to continue on… Does anyone want to do some more talking, or shall we just skip ahead to the next day?”

“I want to gossip a bit with Block.” Said Pidge.

***

Meklavar made her way back to the camp with all their waterskins refilled and ready for use. She happily handed them out and sat next to Block. Block had her help him cut up some vegetables to put in the pot.

“Man, I can’t wait until we get to Corinwern.” Said Block. “It’s like, meant to be another big dwarf city, right? Maybe you can get some information on that crystal you’re after?”

“Hopefully. Corinwern has a huge library.” She looked over at Pike and Thundar. The couple was being all… couply. “... So, what do you think of those two?”

Block shrugged. “They are happy together. Pike’s made Thundar more sociable and Thundar’s made Pike less… stealy… He hasn’t tried to take any coins off of us.”

“That is a good thing…” Muttere Meklavar. “But Shiro has been trying really hard to try and make sure that they aren’t going down on each other.”

Block shook his head and stirred the pot. “True, but it’s kind of Shiro’s religion? Like, I know he’s trying not to force it on us or anything, but he does have a few hangups about some stuff…”

“True. Oh well.” She drank some water and looked at the couple again. “... How long until they do it?”

“They probably already have.”

“... Gross. But probably true.” She muttered. “... You got enough healing spells?”

“Why would I need them?”

“You think either of them know shit about sex stuff? Thundar has been living in the forest for pretty much his whole life… And Pike is a degenerate heathen.” Said Meklavar calmly. “Someone’s going to end up with wizard crabs. Those bastards cast fireball all the time.”

“How would you know?”

“My brother was a very promiscuous kind of guy.”

“... Alright.” Block tapped the side of the side of the pot. “Okay guys, dinner time! Soup is rea-”

***

Suddenly an alarm went off and Allura quickly got up. “Ah, sorry Paladins. That would be the coalition call I was waiting for.” She quickly looked through her datapad as she walked out of the room. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to cut this short. Until next time!”

“I’ll be right with you Princess!” Called Coran. He quickly put his notes away. “Now remember, we’re on our way to Corinwern. Lance, read over the history of the Womblax and we’ll talk later.” He followed Allura out of the room and headed to the bridge.

“Well I think that went well.” Said Shiro. He stood up and stretched. “Okay guys. M&M is fun, but time to do some training.”

Pidge pouted. “Seriously?”

“Yes Pidge. Get a move on.”

Pidge whined and got up. Hunk begrudgingly followed her. Keith and Lance lagged behind. Lance was reading over this history of the Womblax. Keith looked over his shoulder as they walked. 

“... You’re really into this, huh?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah. Well, everyone is really into this and I want to play my character well… It’s something we’re all doing to have a good time, right?”

Keith smiled at him. He quickly glanced around before he quickly kissed Lance on the cheek. “Thanks. I really appreciate it… Also if you kill Bolt I will set fire to your room.”

“Fair.” Lance didn’t care that Keith threatened him. He got a cute little kiss from his adorable boyfriend.


	10. Tree Top

The group managed to make it to a Womblax village in the outskirts of the Jingamine jungle. It was interesting seeing so many people that looked like Pike. Also, Womblax seemed to have two moods, sleepy and hyper. If they weren’t sleeping in tree branches they were running across them.

Pike was very much at home here and climbed up the nearest ladder. He was instantly tackled by several child Womblax. He almost fell out of the tree. Shiro and Valayun went to talk to the village elder. Thundar, Block, and Meklavar were trying to figure out what to do with Bolt.

“... We could shrink him down?” Suggested Meklavar. “You two know any shrinking spells?”

Block shook his head. “Sorry Meklavar. I mainly know healing spells with some attack and defensive stuff. Nothing to shrink an elemental wolf…”

“I don’t really know magic.” Muttered Thundar. “... We’re not going to be allowed up into their treetop village, are we?”

“Probably not.” Said Block. “You know how the Womblax are about dogs… Even though Bolt is a good boy.”

Thundar sighed and crossed his arms. “Um… Okay… Oh! I have an idea! Bolt, play dead.” Bolt stared at Thundar for a few seconds before they turned back into a rock. He grinned and put Bolt into his pocket. “There.”

“Nice idea.” Said Meklavar. “Well, come on. I want to have a look around this village and see what’s going on up there.” 

They happily climbed up a ladder to get to a walkway. Block and Thundar followed after them. They quickly caught up with Shiro and Valayun. They had just finished talking with the village elder. They seemed pretty happy with how things went.

“Hello. Where’s Bolt?” Asked Valayun.

“Thundar got him to play dead.” Said Block. “So he’s back to being a stone. It’s pretty cool.”

“That’s pretty neat.” Said Shiro. “So do you know where Pike ran off to?”

Meklavar shrugged. “Probably getting attacked by kids again. I’ll go and look for him.”

“Me too.” Said Thundar.

“What about you Block?” Asked Shiro.

Block shrugged. “Well, I did see some people drying some fish and birds… So I was thinking about seeing how they cook here and if they have anything that could give us a manna boost or a slight advantage somehow.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Said Shiro.

“What are you two going to do?” Asked Meklavar.

“Shiro and I are going to try and find us some accommodation for the night.” Said Valayun.

“Sounds good.” Said Meklavar. She pushed Thundar down a walkway and across a bridge towards where they last saw Pike.

They quickly spotted Pike getting dogpiled by no less than seven child Womblax climbing all over him while he was trying to stop himself from falling off the branch and to the jungle below. He was doing a pretty good job too. But one of the kits was trying to pull Pike’s tail off the tree branch, which he was using to anchor himself to the tree.

“HEY!” Snapped Thundar. “STOP THAT!”

The kids froze for a moment before they quickly scattered. Pike breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks guys. I was pretty sure I was going to fall over soon…”

“No problem.” Said Meklavar as they helped Pike get onto the main bridge. “So, what’s with the kids?”

Pike shrugged. “What can I say? Kids love me… Also, where is Bolt?”

“He’s back to being a rock.” Said Thundar. He held up the rock to show Pike.

Pike looked at the rock and nodded. “Good. He can stay there.”

“Rude.” Muttered Thundar.

“So, did you grow up in a village like this?” Asked Meklavar.

Pike nodded. “Yeah. My village is kind of more of a town and closer to the Womblex capitol. This place is like on the far, far outskirts of our territory.” He smiled and stretched. “My town is kind of like this, but there’s more walls and stuff to lay on.”

“Neat.”

“Yeah. Where’s everyone else?”

“Shiro and Valayun are getting us some place to sleep and Block’s gone to look at food and stuff.” Said Meklavar. “So, do the kids here just randomly jump on people?”

“Only if you’re a Womblax.” Said Pike. “We’re a very communal bunch.”

“... Will I get in trouble for scaring those kids?” Asked Thundar.

Pike shrugged. “You might get some dirty looks, but that might be it. Not sure. Different villages, different rules. But you probably won’t get out in jail or anything.”

Meklavar chuckled. “Yeah, that would be Thundar’s luck. Thrown into jail for spooking kids.”

“... Shut up.”

***

“Hey guys can pause for a moment?” Asked Hunk. “Gotta check on the cookies, plus I kind of need to go to the little Paladin’s room…”

“Of course.” Said Coran. “I have a few things I need to properly figure out before we get a little too in depth into this village.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll be back in a moment.” Hunk quickly got up and headed out of the room.

Pidge hummed and slightly punched Lance’s arm. “Glad you actually read up on Womblax. Didn’t think you would.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Excuse me? Pidge, I am doing my best here. Gotta try and immerse myself in this world and stuff, you know? Also, if Bolt does show up someone’s going to try and kill him.”

“I’m not going to put Bolt in danger.” Said Keith.

Pidge nodded in agreement. “Yep. Save the good boy. That is the unwritten rule.”

“Is it really?” Asked Allura.

“Well it is among humans.” Said Pidge as they adjusted their glasses. “Hell, there is a website where you can look up movies and if they have a dog you can search to see if the dog died.”

“Humans form strong emotional attachments to animals.” Mused Allura.

Shiro shrugged. “Well, you are very fond of the space mice.”

“Very true…” Allura’s eyes lit up. “Oh, that reminds me! Pidge, are you missing any of those little round flat things? Washers, I believe they are called? The space mice have acquired a few over the past few movements.”

Pidge thought for a moment. “Um… I don’t think so… Ask Hunk when he comes back.”

“Right. Will do.” Allura took a sip of her drink and glanced over at Shiro. “I liked the way you handled the village elder back there. Very nice.”

Shiro smiled. “Well after interacting with Pike so much I kind of figured that the rest of the Womblex might act a little like him. It was a good gamble.”

“A very good gamble.” Said Coran as he twirled his mustache. “The Womblax are a pretty relaxed people.” 

Lance grinned. “Heck yeah. Us Womblax are just a bunch of cool cats. Just give us a sunny spot and some trees to climb and we’re all set.”

Keith hummed a little to himself as he looked through his notes. “What about head pats?”

“That too.”

Hunk walked back into the room with a plate of fresh cookies. The delicious smell of chocolate chip cookies filled the room. “Hey guys! Cookies are done.”

“You are a literal god!” Praised Lance as he quickly grabbed one and bit into it. He groaned in appreciation. “Hmm chocolate…”

Hunk chuckled. “Well actually, it’s made from-”

“Don’t spoil this for me!” Whined Lance. “Sure these cookies are green and orange, but they taste like choc-chip cookies!”

“Alright buddy.” Hunk patted Lance’s back and held the plate out for everyone to take a few. Once they were all settled in again Coran cleared his throat.

“Alright, everyone all good?” He asked. “Anyone need to grab something to drink? Use the restroom?” No one needed to do anything, so Coran dived back into the game. “Alright, we’re back with Thundar, Pike, and Meklavar on the bridge.”

***

Meklavar hummed a little as she looked over the side of the bridge. “Sturdy workmanship. Why do you guys have your buildings up here anyway?”

“So we don’t get attacked by evil wolves and dogs.” Said Pike.

Thundar pouted. “Wolves aren’t evil. Bolt is good.”

“So far.”

Thundar rolled his eyes and walked back to Shiro and Valayun. “We found Pike.”

“Wonderful.” Said Valayun. “We have some accommodation to look at. Where’s Block?”

“I’ll get him.” Said Meklavar. They wandered off to get him.

Shiro gave Pike and Thundar a look. “Look, we have three rooms. Two beds per room and if you two think that-”

“I am not sharing accommodation with Pike or Thundar.” Said Valayun. “Also, Block and Mekalavar are working on something together… So I guess we have to bunk together?”

“... I guess.” Muttered Shiro.

***

Shiro sighed and rubbed his face. “You all are really doing this huh? You’re really making my character uncomfortable with your depravity.”

Allura shrugged. “I ship Pidar… Did I say that right Pidge? Pidar?”

“Yep.”

Lance gasped and stared at Pidge. “You taught Allura what shipping was?!”

Pidge shrugged. “We were talking and we liked how Pike and Thundar interact with each other. We worked hard on a ship name.”

Lance face palmed. “You gave us a ship name?”

Keith looked confused. “Ship name? What?”

Lance threw his arms around his boyfriend and stroked his face. “Shhhhhhh, babe, you’re too sweet and pure to know about the poison and trash that is fandom… Shhhhh…”

“But-”

“Shhhhhhhh.”

“Lan-”

“Shhhhhh… No talking… Only dreams now.”

“... Are you threatening to knock me out or kill me?”

“...”

“...”

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”


	11. Slime

“Quick! I need dexterity throws from all of you!” Said Coran. Everyone quickly rolled their die and called out their numbers. The group had ventured into an old womblax temple. But they had cleared it up with the elders. It was an old temple that no one really knew what it was used for anyway. So they were allowed to explore it. Needless to say they activated a trap.

“17!” Said Allura.

“16!” Said Pidge.

“10!” Said Lance.

“13!” Said Hunk.

“Nat 20!” Said Keith.

“... Nat 1…” Muttered Shiro.

Everyone gave Shiro a sympathetic look. If there was one thing that every Monster’s and Manna player feared, it was the nat 1’s. They were the make or break points of every game. Where as a nat 20 meant glorious victory, a nat 1 meant stupendous disaster.

Coran let out a long, slow sigh. “Oh quiznack… Well, this is going to be interesting…” He cleared his throat and went back into Game Master mode. “Alright, the door slams shut behind you…”

***

The huge stone doors suddenly slammed shut behind them. The group jumped in shock. “I thought you checked for traps?” Asked Block.

Pike frowned and looked at the door. “I did… I think? I mean, there wasn’t anything that looked like a trap…?”

“Well, we are boned.” Said Meklavar. “So, what kind of creepy shit do you think is going to happen here anyway?”

“Why are you asking me?” Asked Pike. “You think I know?”

Thundar raised an eyebrow. “You came from here?”

“The city. Not the outskirts.” Muttered Pike.

Valayun sighed and looked around the room. “Well, no point in making accusations or anything like that. We need to figure a way out of this…”

Everyone started to look around the room. No one noticed something drip onto the floor. A thin, slightly viscous liquid was slowly falling from the ceiling. It was sticky and was a dark shade of blue.

_Drip..._

_Drip… Drip..._

The liquid quickly collected. It pulled together into a small ball and got bigger and bigger with every drip. Each one added to the slowly growing mass.

_Drip..._

“Well, I have no way out…” Muttered Meklavar. “Anyone got anything?”

Everyone shook their heads. “Sorry.” Said Block. “The place looks like it’s sealed tight.

“There has to be some way out.” Said Valayun. She looked around and ran her hand over some hieroglyph-like writings. “... Pike, can you read this?”

Pike cracked his knuckles and walked over to her. “I’ll have a crack at it… let’s see…” He hummed a little as he looked over it. He squinted, tilted his head, and his ears twitched. “Okay… So by the look of it, this is a sacrificial chamber where the enemies of the womblax are sacrificed to the demi-god; The Devourer.”

“And what is the Devourer?” Asked Shiro.

Pike shrugged. “Not a clue. That’s an old demi-god. We don’t worship them anymore. Also their image seems to be damaged on his picture, so no idea what it looks like.” 

_Drip… Drip… Drip..._

Meklavar sighed and crossed her arms. “Perfect… We’re stuck in- LOOK OUT!”

The group jumped back as a massive shape fell from the ceiling and landed on the ground with a massive thud. The walls shook, and a few stones even shook loose slightly. The Devourer was a massive blue slime. Everyone seemed to have avoided getting trapped in it when it fell down… Everyone, but Shiro.

Shiro got caught up in the slime. He was already buried up to his neck and getting pulled deeper into the monster’s body.

“Shiro!” Called Thundar as he quickly fired off an arrow into the gelatinous body of the creature. It did nothing.

“Blue slimes are immune to physical attacks!” Said Block. He quickly cast fireball at the slime. It seemed to damage it a little. As he did that, Valayun shot several enchanted arrows at the slime. The combination seemed to make the slime recoil slightly.

While that happened, Meklavar, Pike, and Thundar went about attempting to free Shiro. It was hard as they had to keep dodging the slime’s attacks. Meklavar got close enough to swing her great axe down and slice through the slime, freeing Shiro.

He quickly got up and brushed some of the slime off himself. “Gross… Thanks guys.”

“No problem. You have any spells on you?” Asked Thundar.

“Um… Not anything that might be useful against this things…”

Valayun quickly dived out of the way of a slime attack. “I’m all out of arrows!” She called.

“I’m almost out of spells!” Called Block.

Thundar groaned and started to pull out his enchanted arrows. “Damn it… We should have prepared some more before he came in here…” He quickly fired a few electric arrows at the slime. The slime charred and squealed as it quickly shrunk a significant amount.

Watching that gave Pike an idea. While Thundar was distracted shooting arrows, Pike snuck up behind him and pickpocketed him. He grabbed some bones, a few arrow heads, and the stone that the elemental wolf, Bolt was in.

Pike didn’t like it at all, but they were all going to die if he didn’t do something. He held the stone tightly in his hand and threw it as hard as he could at the slime. Seeing his pet getting thrown into danger, Thundar yelled out in shock. 

The sound of his voice seemed to activate Bolt, and the elemental wolf materialized inside the slime. Finding themselves inside a slime really pissed off the wolf, and with a mighty crack, Bolt set off a huge jolt of electricity. The slime withered, cracked, and exploded. The womblax demi-god, the Devourer, was dead.

Bolt happily ran over to Thundar and knocked him over, happily licking his face. Thundar laughed and ran his fingers through his wolf’s fur. “Good boy! You’re such a good boy!” Bolt and Meklavar quickly came over and started to give Bolt all the love too. Bolt was getting all kinds of praise from the trio.

Valayun smiled and nudged Pike’s arm. “Good idea. How did you know it would work?”

“Bit of dumb luck?” Said Pike.

Shiro grinned and patted his back. “Either way, you did an amazing job. Good job Pike.”

Suddenly there was a loud click and the doors opened. In the chamber beyond this one was a large treasure chest filled with gold. Everyone cheered and went to inspect the treasure.

***

“... And that is where we will end today’s session.” Said Coran. “That was really smart. Good puzzle solving there Lance.”

Hunk nodded in agreement. “Yeah man. I keep forgetting that blue slimes are weak against lightning.”

“At least you didn’t kill Keith’s dog.” Said Pidge.

Lance rolled his eyes as he slung his arm over Keith’s shoulder. “If I got Bolt killed then I think we all know I’d never get laid again.”

Pidge cringed. “Ew.”

Shiro shook his head and clapped his hands. “Alright guys, I think we should all think about heading to bed. We have early training tomorrow. Everyone needs to be up bright and early for that.”

The Paladin’s groaned, but Allura seemed to be in agreement with Shiro. “He’s right. Come on everyone. Time for bed.”

The Paladin’s reluctantly got up and wandered off to their rooms. Keith went into his room and got ready for bed. After a few minutes of laying on his bed, he decided that this was a little too lonely, so he got up to see his boyfriend. He would probably only be halfway through his beauty routine by now anyway.

He knocked on the door and a few ticks later Lance opened the door. He already had that weird face mask thing on. This time it was a green gel. He smiled a little at him. “Hey there Keith. What up?”

“Wanted to see you.” Said Keith quietly. He quickly leaned up and kissed Lance on the lips. “Can I stay with you?”

“Sure, but you’re gonna have to be the big spoon tonight.” Warned Lance. “Don’t want to get this face gunk in your hair.”

“You say it like I wasn’t going to do that in the first place.”

Lance rolled his eyes and got into his bed. “You just gonna stand there or are you gonna come over here samurai?” Keith chuckled and followed his boyfriend.


	12. Honk

“Honk.”

The group looked down at the offending bird in confusion. They had just been traveling along the road when suddenly a goose wandered onto their path and didn’t seem to want them to pass. Bolt had tried growling at it, but the goose was not intimidated at all by the immovable goose. In fact, the goose hissed at Bolt and scared them. The elemental wolf was currently hiding behind Thundar.

“How are we going to get past them?” Asked Block.

“Can anyone speak to animals?” Asked Valayun.

Meklaver shrugged and gestured to Thundar. “Ask the animal expert.”

Thundar sighed and walked over to the goose. He cleared his throat and looked at them. “Um… Hello there? Can you please move out of the way?”

“Honk!”

“Um…”

“HONK! HONK! HONK!”

Thundar walked back to the group. “Yeah, I have no idea what they are saying.”

“Maybe we should just kill it?” Suggested Pike. “We could have goose for dinner?”

“We don’t have to kill it.” Said Shiro. “We probably have something that they want. If we give it to them then they might leave us alone?”

“Yeah… Not convinced.” Said Meklaver. “Go with Pike’s idea.”

“It’s just a goose.” Said Shiro. 

“I agree with Shiro.” Said Valayun. “We should figure out a peaceful solution to-”

While they were talking, Thundar readied his bow, and shot the goose. It let out a pained squawk and fell over. Everyone looked over at him and he shrugged. “What? It’s a goose.”

***

“Alright everyone.” Said Coran as he cracked his knuckles. “Roll initiative.”

“20.”

“18.”

“15.”

“9.”

“13.”

“5.”

Coran let out a slow breath as he quickly rolled a few dice of his own. “Hmm, alright… This will be interesting…”

***

As Valayun and Shiro argued with Thundar about just randomly killing a goose. Thundar just shrugged. The goose was an asshole and in their way. He argued that there was no reason to not kill it. They could just eat the damn thing now anyway. Plus he and Valayun could use the feathers for their bows.

“HONK!”

The group looked over at the goose that was rapidly growing. Within seconds it was towering over the group. It had nasty, fierce looking teeth, red rimmed eyes and talons tipped its webbed feet. When it honked the trees shook.

“HONK!”

“And this is why you don’t just shoot the goose…” Muttered Shiro.

Valayun quickly drew her bow and shot two ice arrows at the beast. One hit its wing while the other hit it in the chest. It bellowed and honked, quickly stamping its feet. As Valayun distracted it, Meklavar managed to sneak up close to it and strike it in the leg. Block used a spell to supercharge Thundar’s bow. 

The goose hissed and aggressively flapped its wings, knocking everyone back before it took a swipe at Meklavar. She got knocked into a tree and clearly took damage.

Thundar quickly let loose an arrow. Thanks to Block’s enchantment, Thundar’s arrow struck a critical hit on the goose. Shiro managed to run up to the goose and struck its other leg. While the goose was reeling back in pain, Pike lit a small explosive and threw it at the bird. Unfortunately he completely missed and blew up a tree behind the monster bird.

“... Oops?”

“Aim lower!” Yelled Thundar as he took cover behind a rock. The half elf then whistled and Bolt barked loudly. The clouds quickly gathered and the goose got struck with lightning.

“HONK! HONK! HONK!”

“How strong is this monster?!” Asked Valayun as she quickly let off a few more shots. One hitting the goose and one missing it.

“Oh, so now it’s a monster?” Asked Thundar.

Meklavar went into a rage and started hacking away at the goose’s legs. The goose almost fell over and started to breathe fire. “HONK! HONK! HONK!”

Block quickly cast a magic shield over Shiro. Just in time too. The goose sent flames Shiro’s way. He managed to hold his own behind his own shield and the flames. Shiro cast divine retribution on the goose and three spears made of tangible light struck the bird.

Thundar jumped up on top of the rock and shot at the goose again, hitting it square in the eye, but that didn’t kill it. Pike then decided to try and throw another bomb at it and struck the goose on the back. The goose fell over and hit the ground. Bolt attempted to strike it again with more lightning, but he fudged it and ended up coughing instead of barking.

Valayun missed her shot at hitting the goose, and Meklavar ended up delivering the killing blow. Like a tiny, angry tornado of fury and axe blades, Meklavar blaze through the animal’s neck, beheading it and ending the fight.

Pike sat down and let out a sigh of relief. “So… This means we are having goose for dinner, and breakfast, and lunch, and dinner?”

Block nodded as he walked over to the goose. “Yeah, looks like it… That was a really good shot Thundar. I… I can’t believe you actually got them in the eye…”

“Yeah!” Yelled Meklavar. “Damn noodle neck bastard! I’ll kill them all!”

“Cam down there Mek.” Said Shiro calmly. “You’re still raging.”

“I know.” She said as she breathed heavily. “Gotta… Gotta take a few deep breaths… Give me a moment…”

“So, kill all geese from now on?” Asked Thundar.

Pike shook his head. “Not if they are all gonna turn into giant, fire breathing weregoose things. They’re scary...”

Thundar placed his hand in Pike’s back and smiled softly at him. “It’s okay. I’ll take care of any scary geese that come our way.

“... Dude, you’re the one that made the goose go feral in the first place.”

“What? No I-”

“He’s right!” Said Block “You kind of did shoot it… Just saying… Might have been able to bribe it with some bread…”

“Or my fucking fist!” Yelled Meklavar.

“MEK!” Snapped Shiro. “Language!”

“Sorry!” They yelled. “Still calming down from my rage!”

Shiro shook his head and looked at Thundar. “So, what did you learn from this experience?”

“... I need a better bow.”

“What?”

“I need to be able to kill a goose like that in one hit.”

“Thundar… That’s not…”

“That’s totally hot.” Swooned Pike. “Damn, you’re so hot when you’re all murdery like that babe.”

“Call me babe again and I’ll stab you with an arrow.”

“Oh honey, save that dirty talk for the bedroom.”

***

“I can’t believe we fought a goose…” Said Pidge. They looked over at Coran. “Did you take us seriously when we told you that geese were horrible, evil, earth monsters?”

Coran nodded and twirled his moustache. “Well of course. I was inspired by their ferocious hissing and honking. Their hunting prowess and unrelenting need to attack makes them a top predator… I hope you don’t mind that I homebrewed the stats on it?”

Hunk shook his head. “I think you nailed it.

“Yeah.” Agreed Lance. “Geese are evil creatures. I didn’t think they could get anymore evil, but you did it. You made it even more evil.”

“... Can I loot its body for feathers?” Asked Keith.

“I want to do that too!” Said Allura.

“Alright, you loot the weargoose.” Said Coran. “You each get twenty white feathers.”


	13. Dual Class

“Dual class.” Said Lance.

Pidge looked up from her datapad and slowly raised an eyebrow. She had just been doing her own thing, trying to figure out how to emulate some old school earth games onto the Altean system when Lance came in. He didn’t even say hi to her. Just walked up and started talking.

“Dual class?” Asked Pidge. “Don’t you mean multiclass?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. I want Pike to dual class.”

“You’ll need to talk to Coran about it.”

“I know, but I want to know what you think.” Said Lance. “I want to dual class as a sharpshooter too. Make Pike a little more like me.”

“Really?”

“Hey, you’re lucky Keith didn’t ask if there was a brooding anime emo boy class.”

“Actually there is.”

“No way… Really?”

Pidge quickly opened up a new tab on her datapad and showed Lance a page on the official Monsters and Manna homebrew classes. “Edgelord.”

Lance quickly grabbed it off her and started reading through it. He did his best not to laugh as he read. “Oh my god… This is full of anime tropes and katana related powers… What the fuck is this? You can have a background called haunted yet convenient past?! Plot armor? Ridiculously impractical and ultra powerful final attack? Ha! I love it. This is Keith all over.”

Pidge pouted and swiped her datapad back. “Well I’m glad you find it funny. You still need to talk to Coran if you want to dual class as a sharpshooter.”

“I will.” Said Lance. “And when I’m a cool ninja sharpshooter you’ll all be sorry.” With that he left and went to find Coran.

***

The group had just successfully helped several villagers make it safely to the main womblax city. The leader of the caravan shook everyone’s hand. “Thank you.” They said. “Thank you so much for helping us. Here is the gold which we promised. 110 gold each.”

“It was a pleasure.” Said Shiro. “We’re more than happy to help.” 

While he went about dividing the gold among the party, the leader of the caravan took Pike aside. Pike had been really happy and connected with the other womblax in the caravan. It was interesting to see how they interacted with each other. Though they were all very cautious of Bolt when they saw him.

“Pike my boy,” they said. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep traveling with us? Your friends are interesting, but they aren’t exactly womblax are they?”

Pike chuckled. “Nah, I get it. But I’m going to keep traveling with them. Besides…” He looked over at Thundar who was currently readjusting his coat and brushing some twigs out of his hair. “I’m in love with that man.”

“Ah, I see. A bonded pairing?”

“We aren’t that far along yet…”

“Fair enough… Now, before you go, I want to give you something special. Come with me.” They followed them over to a caravan and they gave Pike a box. “Here you go. You earned it. Good luck.”

Pike opened it up and grinned when he saw what was inside. “Thank you so much.”

“What do you have there buddy?” Asked Block.

Pike grinned and took out a pistol. “A gun!”

***

“Hang on!” Said Keith quickly. “I thought this was a fantasy game? Why does Lance now have a gun?”

“Because guns are cool.” Said Lance. “And Coran said I could have it.”

Coran nodded. “Well you see Keith, in the E27 edition of Monsters and Manna there is a homebrew class called gunslinger. Lance wanted Pike to multiclass as a gunslinger-”

“Sharpshooter!”

“-and a rogue-”

“Ninja!”

“-so we talked about it and we decided he can have a gun.”

Keith still wasn’t convinced. “But who is making guns in this world? How would he get bullets for the gun? It isn’t some kind of energy blaster is it?”

“That would make it a little over powered…” Muttered Shiro.

Coran just tutted and shook his head. “Do you really think I would give Pike something so powerful? At the moment he only has ten bullets, and the instructions on how to make more. In this world, guns are difficult to come by, but not impossible. The Dwarves of the Ironfeld mountains have technology like cannons. In fact, they created the first hand cannons. Though you lot haven’t reached that part of the world yet. Meklavar would know about this because she has family there.”

Pidge nodded. “Yep… All twenty five uncles and aunts… That’s not including kids…”

“You still need to give me a family tree.”

“I know… I’m working on it.”

Hunk sighed. “You really should have decided to have less family…”

“I regret nothing.”

Allura cleared her throat. “Can we get back to the game? If you are satisfied with Coran’s answer, Keith?”

The red paladin still didn’t seem very happy with this development, but he conceded for now. “Fine.”

***

“A gun?” Asked Valayun as she walked over to them. “How strange… I have heard about these things before, but I never thought I would ever get to see one…”

Meklavar frowned a little. “Huh, more guns are making their way out of the Ironfeld mountains… Don’t go pointing that thing at anyone.”

“Relax.” Whined Pike. “I’ll be careful with it.” He holstered his weapon and the group happily walked into the city.

First things first, the group needed to figure out was where they were going to stay for the night. Block quickly found them a nice looking place to stay for the night. They sat around a table and ordered a few drinks and got dinner.

Meklavar got into a drinking contest with a stocky looking womblax. Shiro was trying to make sure that she wasn’t going to get too drunk. Block ended up talking to some people. Allura talked to the barmaid. Thundar and Pike stayed at their table eating. Thundar seemed a little grumpy.

“Something wrong there pointy ears?” Asked Pike. “Not enough roasted seeds?”

“No.” Pouted the half elf.

Pike sighed and leaned against his boyfriend’s arm. “Come on babe. I know something’s bothering you… I know, it’s because I have a cool new weapon and you don’t?”

“No.”

“Oh come on. We both know it is… I’ll let you use it from time to time? You already know how to handle my gun pretty well. I-”

***

“Let’s call it a night.” Said Hunk. “Sorry Lance, but we can only handle so much of Pike’s bad flirting before it becomes repetitive. Tone it back a little there buddy.”

Lance pouted, but nodded. “Yeah, okay. Fine. I’ll pull it back in. I’ll leave all my flirting for the bedroom.” He batted his eyelashes at Keith for emphasis.

Keith rolled his eyes. “You disgust me.”

“You love me.”

Pidge rolled her eyes and got up. “Alright, Imma head out. Gonna take a shower and cleanse myself of all your sinful shit.”

Lance pouted some more and wrapped his arms around Keith. “Boo, you’re boring. Let me be a sinful heathen.”

“Not here.” Said Shiro. “If you two want to be sinful then be sinful in your bedrooms.”

“Argh, fine!” Whined Lance as he stood up and pulled Keith to his feet. “Come on. I want to show you a class that I think would be perfect for Thundar. You get to use a sword.”

“Really?”

Lance grinned. “Yep. I think it’s pretty neat. The only sword you can carry is a katana though.”


	14. Mysterious stranger

In the Womblax city, Meklavar discovered a lead to finding her family's lost gemstone. It was quite a large emerald, so it was probably taken by a troll into the underdark. A place filled with monsters and horrors. Everyone was excited to go, except Block. Block was never a big fan of too much danger.

“Do we really have to go to the underdark?” Asked Block. “The underdark is kind of… awful? It’s full of dark and evil things and like, dark flesh monsters? Have you heard of these things called flesh kites? They sound horrible.”

“Do we even know how to get to the underdark?” Asked Valayun. “You can’t just suddenly stumble into it… We would need to head down… Really far down.”

“There’s a lot of dark magic down there…” Muttered Shiro.

Pike grinned and nudged Block. “Hey, think about it this way, your village was cursed to stone right? That’s some pretty twisted dark magic stuff. You night be able to find a way to undo the spell down there.”

“... Maybe.”

Shiro cleared his throat. “Okay, I think we know what is going on. We are going to have to find a way into the underdark. Anyone have any idea who can help us?”

Pike shrugged and lightly hip checked Thundar. “You know anyone babe?”

“Why would I know anyone in this city?”

“Fair enough.”

“I guess we will just have to find someone.” Said Valayun. “Where would we find such a person?”

“Somewhere shady?” Suggested Meklavar. “A bar? Some kind of black market. There has to be something… I need to restore my family’s honor!”

“How did you lose a giant emerald anyway?” Asked Pike.

“My brother is shit at poker.”

“Ah…”

Valayun looked shocked. “Your brother gambled away your family heirloom?”

“He is not a very bright man.”

“Well, let’s split up and look for someone that can take us to the underdark.” Said Shiro. Block, Pike, you two go to the markets. Meklavar, Valayun, you two head to the Soot Foot tavern. Thundar and I will head to the markets.”

The group agreed and quickly split up. Thundar and Shiro went to the markets and slowly made their way into the more illegal side of the markets. As they looked around, Shiro decided to start up a conversation with Thundar. They had bonded over hunting and fighting, but they didn’t have much of a heart to heart talk. Now was the perfect time.

“So… Mind if I ask what you were doing before you fell into that hot spring?” Asked Shiro.

Thandar shrugged. “I was heading to town to get some medical supplies.”

“Well yeah, I know that. I meant what were you doing out in the forest.”

“Oh that… Well, as you can see I’m only a half elf. My other half is human and well… I kind of outlived my father…”

“That’s rough… What about your mother?”

“I have no idea where she is.” Said Thundar. “She just up and left… My father always spoke highly of her. Like she was a good person… I don’t really know much about her. All I have is a talisman, but I have no idea what it means. I haven’t come across anyone that can tell me what it means.” Thundar took a talisman out of his pocket. It was round and had a strange looking S printed on it. “I thought it might have been a family coat of arms, but no one knows of it. So she might…”

Shiro put his hand on Thundar’s shoulder. “It’s okay… We might not be able to find your mother, but we’ll try and figure out what that talisman means. Maybe you should ask the others about it? Maybe one of them would know something? Valayun seems pretty well traveled.”

“Yeah… I might ask her… What about you?” Asked Thundar. “Why did you join up with this lot? What do you get out of it?”

“Well, Block and Meklavar have noble goals. They needed help, and as a Paladin I wanted to help see their quest through to the end. I have a sense of duty to try and right the wrongs that have happened.”

“So you just want to help people?” He asked.

Shiro nodded. “Yeah. Helping people makes me feel good.”

“So you’re selfish.”

“What? No?” Now Shiro was confused.

“You only help people because you want to feel good about yourself. That’s pretty selfish behaviour. Wouldn’t have expected that from a Paladin.”

***

“Really Keith?” Asked Shiro. “We were having a bonding moment and developing a backstory.”

Keith shrugged as he leaned back in his chair and looked over his datapad. “What can I say? My character likes you, but doesn’t really care for your religion. He’s gonna poke holes in it.”

“I am swooning.” Cooed Lance.

Pidge rolled her eyes and flicked a small screw she happened to have in her pocket at Lance from across the table. “No more horny at the table. It disturbs me. You have some fucked up kinks there Lance.”

“I don’t. Pike does.” Clarified Lance.

“You’re both degenerate freaks.”

Lance pouted and sunk into his seat. “Don’t kink shame Pike. He’ll get offended.”

“Kink shaming is Meklavar’s kink.”

“Ah, so Meklavar is into humiliation?” Questioned Coran. “Let me just make a note of that in case Meklavar gets into such a situation or romance where this might come up…”

“I was joking!” Said Pidge quickly. “It was just a joke! Let’s just get back to that bonding moment between Shiro and Thundar.”

“I thought it was quite cute.” Said Hunk. 

Allura nodded in agreement. “The RP elements of monsters and manna are probably my favourite parts.”

Coran cracked his knuckles and gestured back to the board. “Alright everyone, back to the game.” He cleared his throat. “Thundar, with your keen hunting senses you feel a pair of eyes on you and a presence following you two. Roll for perception.”

Keith rolled his dice and quickly added his perception bonus. “... 16?”

“Perfect.”

***

Out of the corner of Thundar’s eye he noticed someone in a hooded cloak following them. He frowned a little and lightly bumped his arm against Shiro’s. “I think there is someone following us…”

“Do you think they mean to cause us harm?”

“Probably.”

“Are they womblax?”

“Possibly. They are too far away to tell, but they are the height of an average womblax.”

“... Follow me.” Shiro quickly lead Thundar down an alleyway. 

The figure quickly followed them, but were a little surprised that they were gone. They carefully stepped forward with some caution. Suddenly, Shiro jumped out of their hiding place and shield bashed them into a wall. Thundar shot an arrow at them, pinning their cloak to the wall before he quickly moved to them. He already had another arrow ready to shoot them in the face.

“Alright, who are you?” Asked Shiro.

The man put his hands up in surrender. The man had pale lavender skin with even paler markings on his face. This man was a drow. Generally considered the more wicked and evil of the elf races. The kind that reveled in the chaos that they caused. The kind that lived in the underdark.

“Please, lower your weapon.” They said. “I saw that young man’s talisman and was curious as to how he came about it… It’s not something you see much of on the surface. It’s more of… an underdark kind of thing.”

Thundar was surprised. “You know what it is?” If it really was from the underdark then it would explain why he couldn’t find any information on it. Only the very bare minimum was known about the underdark, and that was mostly from adventurers or settlements that lived as close to those disturbing places as they dared to. “What do you know about it?”

“That talisman bears the seal of a rather prominent family in the underdark.” They said. “It’s not something that would just make its way up here for no reason, nor would it leave the family without reason. More than likely taken from the cold, dead hand of the poor drow that held it in the first place.”

“I didn’t steal it.” Snapped Thundar. “It was given to me… By my father… He wore it every day of his life before he gave it to me and passed away…”

“And what are you?” They asked. “You look human. Did your human father kill one of the family in some grand adventure?”

Thundar glared at them. “I’m half elf you shit! And my mother gave it to my father!”

“If you say so.” Said the man calmly. “I will be keeping an eye on you from now on, young half elf.” They dropped a smoke bomb and vanished.

***

Coran was about to dive into deeper detail when the alarm suddenly went off. Allura quickly got to her feet. “We’re under attack! Paladin’s to your lions!”

Everyone quickly abandoned the game and ran to the hanger. “Oh man…” Whined Pidge. “Just when things were getting interesting too!”


	15. Darmork

Block and Pike managed to find and haggle their way into finding an orc to lead them to a cave that would lead them to the underdark. They easily made it down, though Block had a little difficulty seeing in the dark. Eventually, after many days of travel the group found the city in the underdark known as Damork. 

Darmork was a city filled with drows, duergar, and mind flayers. Basically all manner of dark and twisted inhabitants lived down there. Everyone was a little hesitant, but they walked into the metaphorical lion’s den. They got strange looks from the inhabitants but no one really talked to them, but they definitely made it look like they were unwelcome.

“So…” Said Block. “Where should we go?”

“Well…” Muttered Valayun. “We should go to the library to look for what you need Block, and we might need to go to the markets to figure out where that troll might be.”

“Sounds like a good idea.” Said Shiro. “Block, Thundar and I will go and find a library. Meklavar, Valayun, Pike, you go and see if you can find any information on the troll. We then meet back up here at the fountain. Sound like a good plan?”

***

Coran cracked his knuckles and grinned. “Alright, who wants to go first? Meklavar’s group, or Block’s group?”

Everyone thought for a moment. Pidge held up a gak and shrugged. “Crowns, Meklavar’s group goes first and claws, Block goes first?”

“Sounds good to me.” Said Hunk.

Pidge passed the gak to Coran, who flipped the gak. “... So Thundar, Shiro, and Block are making their way towards the Darmork library.”

***

The trio stood in front of the library. A large foreboding building made from dark, black stone. Block wasn’t sure if they would even be allowed in there considering that they weren’t actual residents of Darmork. The gnome that looked like he was running the place gave them angry looks, but said nothing.

“Quick question…” Said Thundar. “Does anyone here actually read underdark?”

Block held up a necklace. “I have a rune of reading.”

“Okay…”

“So what do we need?” Asked Shiro. “Books on spells? Charms? Curses?”

“It would probably be curses… Anything about petrification.” Said Block. Shiro and Thundar nodded. They all started to look through different sections of the library to see if they could find anything to help Block save his village.

As they looked, Thunder happened upon a book of family crests. The feel of his talisman around his neck was heavy. He’d just have a quick look inside it and see if there was anything similar to his talisman in there.

He quickly found something written in Elvish. The talisman seemed to be from the house of Makrabork. A very well established and powerful drow clan in this part of the underdark. They kept the gold flowing in the underdark. He wondered if he could possibly find the house of Makrabork.

Thundar went to join the others and was happy to find that Block had found a way to break the curse. “There is only one catch though…” Said Block. “I need a large emerald to amplify the spell…”

“So we need to get Meklavar’s heirloom?” Asked Shiro.

“It looks that way.” Said Block.

Shiro nodded. “Alright. Sounds good. Copy down the cure to the curse and we’ll head back to the fountain and meet up with everyone else.”

***

“Wow…” Said Hunk. “I can’t believe nothing went wrong? I might actually save my village.”

Lance grinned and high fived him. “Heck yeah Hunkinator.”

Coran grinned and twirled his moustache. “Well you boys did roll rather well on investigation. Good job. Now, shall we switch over to Meklavar’s party?” Everyone nodded in agreement and Coran cracked his knuckles. “Alright, so you are going to the markets, correct?”

“That’s right.” Said Pidge.

Coran nodded and put on his Game Master voice again. “You enter the markets, many people are looking at you. You’re strangers in their city of course. They don’t get many people from the topside… What do you do?”

“I want to see if I can find any stalls selling gems.” Said Lance.

“Roll for investigation.”

“... 17?”

“Pike immediately finds a stall selling gemstones and informs the rest of the party…”

***

“Hmm, how about we start there?” Asked Pike. He gestured to a large stall decked out with hundreds of shiny stones. A duergar dwarf was sitting behind the stall, giving them the side eye.

With a smile on her face and a spring in her step, Valayun happily walked up to them. “Hello good sir. My name is Valayun. I am very happy to see you on this fine day in the underdark and-”

“What do you want?” Barked the duergar in a rude manner.

Valayun was taken aback a little. “Well we are looking for your supplier.”

“My what? You trying to cut me out? Cut out the middleman? Piss off! I ain’t selling you anything you weird looking wood elf!”

Pike casually slipped over and laughed. “Hey, don’t mind her. She’s a little strange around the much more noble duergar dwarf race.” Meklavar glared up at Pike and stomped on his foot. Pike flinched a little. “What Valayun meant to say was that… We are looking for a very specific gem dealer. He may or may not owe someone something…”

The duergar eyed him suspiciously. “Well… There are a few dealers in the area… You’re gonna need to be more specific.”

“A troll.” Said Meklavar.

“Hmm? A troll?” They hummed and stroked their beard. “Yes, I know about them… You’re going to have to talk to the Makrabork’s about it.”

Pike raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

The duergar scoffed. “The Makrabork’s are the most influential drow in the underdark… You probably aren’t going to be able to come in and just have a meeting with them. They are rather… stabby when they are slighted…” He chuckled. “Though it would be interesting to see you lot try and get slaughtered by a bunch of angry drow. Entertainment down here is few and far between you know.”

“Thanks for your assistance.” Siad Valayun.

“So you gonna buy anything or what?” They asked.

Pike pointed to a red stone. “How much is this?”

“Three gold.”

“Three gold?! For that tiny thing?!”

“Buy it or piss off.”

“...” Pike grumbled and paid the man the gold and quickly snatched up the stone. 

The trio walked back to the fountain and were surprised to see the other group was already there. Everyone quickly discussed what they had found out and what they needed to do. It was pretty easy. They were going to figure out where the Makrabork’s house was and then they would figure out how to interact with them without getting possibly stabbed.

As they did so, Pike took Thundar aside and showed him the stone. “Um… Here.” He said. “I thought you might be able to make it into a ring or something?”

Thundar was surprised, but he took it. “Oh wow… You know, you don’t have to give me these things… I don’t have much use for them.”

“Yeah, but I like giving you things!” Whined Pike. “I like getting you pretty things so you can look even more amazing than you already are!”

Thundar blushed a little and put the stone in his coin pouch. “Thank you… I’ll figure out something to do with it.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah… Hey Pike?”

“Yeah?” 

“... You know how I’m a half-elf?”

“Yeah?”

“... I think I might be half-drow... Or at least one of my parents might have killed a drow.”

“Oh…”

Shiro walked over to them. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine.” Said Thundar. “What’s happening?”

“Valayun found a tavern; the smashed skull.” Said Shiro. “We’re going to go there to talk things over and see if we can find any more information.”

***

“And that is where we will leave the session today.” Said Coran. “Good work everyone. But it’s a varga past the designated bedtime. You humans need at least eight varga’s of sleep to be functioning at your best.”

The humans on the ship groaned in annoyance, but reluctantly packed their things. It was a good place to end things, but at the same time they wanted to keep going. Then again, that was always the way, wasn’t it?”


	16. Mansion

The party went to the tavern; the Smashed Skull, and decided to go down to eat some food while talking about what to do. They weren’t too sure about the ins and outs of Darmork. They needed to figure out where the Makrabork’s were and how to get in contact with them. They had no idea where to start without stepping on toes.

“Maybe we should just ask around?” Suggested Valayun.

“Might not be a good idea…” Said Meklavar. “You never know what they might say or do…”

“I can mingle?” Suggested Pike. “You guys figure out if we can get a room here for the night and I’ll try and get some information?”

Thundar shook his head. “Don’t mess up and do something stupid.”

Pike gasped in fake hurt. “Oh yee of little faith! I shall be back in a moment.” Before anyone could say anything else, Pike slipped off and escaped into the bar.

Block and Shiro went to see if they could get a room while Pike was getting information. The remaining trio sat around the table. It became a little quiet, Valayun was a little uneasy about being in the underdark. Not surprising since she was a woodland elf. Woodland elves and drow do not get along very well.

“Are you worried about meeting the Makraborks?” Asked Thundar. “They are drow after all…”

Valayun frowned and nodded. “Yes… Drow are… They do not have a very good reputation and we don’t get along with them… They will probably be hostile towards me…”

“It’s okay.” Said Meklavar. “These things happen in the underdark. We’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah…” Muttered Valayun. “We will figure this out. Don’t worry about it. The sooner we talk to them, the sooner we can find the troll. Once we find the troll, we can get my emerald, and save Block’s village.”

Suddenly Pike was right next to Thundar, grinning happily. “I know where the Makrabork’s are.” He said in a sing-song voice. “They have some big ass mansion up on some fancy hill by the cemetery. We should be fine to go up and talk to them. Like, knock on the door and everything, but they might just turn us away. They are kind of snobby assholes apparently.” 

“Glad you found out something useful.” Said the half elf ranger.

Pike stuck his tongue out. “Babe, you’re so rude to me.”

Blick and Shiro came back over. “Alright, we have two rooms with two double beds and one single bed. How are we going to split things up for tonight?” It was eventually decided that Thundar, Pike, and Block would share one room while Shiro, Valayun and Meklavar took the other. Thunder and Pike shared the double bed while Block took the single bed. Valayun and Meklaver shared the double and Shiro took the single.

***

Coran grinned and clapped his hands together. “Alright. That’s pretty good. Goodwork everyone. I was worried there would be a bar fight. That would have been bad if you failed those rolls Lance.”

Lance nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I was sure I was going to get caught by that guard… Or the mind flayer… I don’t have a strong enough constitution for that…”

Pidge shrugged. “Well, you rolled a nat 20 so you got pretty lucky.”

“Yeah… Maybe I should get the lucky feat next time we level up?” Wondered Lance out loud.

“You’re pretty lucky already. With your rolls.” Said Pidge. I want to check your dice to make sure it really is generating random numbers and aren’t loaded…”

Lance rolled his eyes at that. “Pidge, I don’t know how to do coding. It’s all gibberish to me.”

“... Still gonna check your dice.” They muttered.

“So what are we going to do now?” Asked Block.

Shiro thought for a moment. “Well, we should probably at least find the Makrabork’s mansion and then go from there. Everyone agree?”

Everyone nodded and Coran smiled. “Alright, so you all take a long rest. And decide to head to the Makrabork mansion…”

***

The group made their way to the cemetery and quickly found the Makrabork mansion. The house was gigantic; three stories tall and made from black and purple marble. Glowing orange and red lights came from the windows. The whole place had a kind of creepy glow to it which made everyone shudder slightly at how eerie it was.

“This place is kind of creepy…” Said Block.

Meklavar shrugged and cracked her knuckles. “Time to beat the shit out of them and get our answers.”

Valayun put her hand on their shoulder. “Calm down. How about we just knock first?”

“Well yeah, if you want to be boring.” They muttered.

Shiro shook his head and knocked on the door. After a few minutes the door slowly opened. A very familiar man answered the door. The mysterious stranger that Thundar and Shiro had cornered in the Womblax city.

“You!” Exclaimed Thundar as he reached for fis dagger.

That man just seemed amused. “And it is you. Welcome to the ancestral home of the Makraborks. The most prominent and influential drow clan in the underdark. Please, come in.” The man happily gestured for them to come in and the group very cautiously followed.

The stranger took them to the sitting room where a man was waiting. This drow was much taller than the average drow and much more muscular too. They had a long pale braid that wrapped around their neck several times and-

***

“Kolivan.” Said Keith.

“Come again?” Questioned Coran.

“You’re describing Koliivan, but as a drow.

“... Okay, you can either just let me finish or you can nitpick.”

“Fine…”

***

“I see. So they have arrived.” Said the older drow. They stood up and bowed to them. “I am Vankol. The head of the Makraborks. We have much to discuss, though we weren’t informed that so many of you would be here…” They shot looks over to the stranger, who just shrugged.

“I only saw him with the Paladin before. My mistake.” They said.

Vankol sighed and waved them off. “Please leave Laz. Now, please make yourselves comfortable. We have much to talk about.”

The group did as they were told, and Valayun spoke up. “Sir Vankol, I am Valayun and these are my companions, Shiro, Block, Meklavar, Pike, and Thundar. We humbly apologise for showing up to your home, but we have reason to believe you can help us.”

“How?” Asked the drow.

“My idiot brother lost the family emerald to a troll.” Said Meklavar. “Apparently the troll is a jeweler that you employ.”

Vankol pulled an upset face and crossed their arms. “That troll. Yes… Tell you what. We have had some trouble with them as of late, so if you were to say… Take care of them, we will be more than happy to let you take whatever you may be able to carry.”

“Can I ask why you want this troll gone?” Asked Shiro.

“They are meant to be doing trade directly with us.” Said Vankol. “We have proof that they aren’t doing trade through us. We take great offence to that and will not tolerate such blatant disrespect.”

“Why not do this yourself?” Asked Pike.

“Why dirty our hands when you are going to dirty them anyway when you go to get your emerald back?” They asked. “Now, if you would kindly kill them, you may do what you want with their hoard of gemstones. Kill their minions if you must. I do not care.”

“Where can we find this troll?” Asked Meklavar.

“Do you agree to kill them?”

Valayun nodded. “We don’t have much of a choice in the matter. We need to get that emerald back.”

Vankol nodded and smiled. “Good. There is a small mine to the East of the city. That is where that troll operates. You will get an audience with them if you show them a symbol of the Makrabork’s house.”

“Perfect.” Said Pike. “Can you give it to us?”

“You already have one.” They said as they looked over at Thundar. With much reluctance, Thundar reached into his pocket and took out his talisman.”

“Please don’t tell me you stole that from one of them…” Muttered Block.

“I didn’t.” Said Thundar. “My mother gave it to me before she disappeared… It seems like I might be half human, half drow… And my mother might have been a Makrabork.”

“I can give you more information on them once you come back.” Said Vankol. “Think of it as and extra incentive to-”

***

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOooOOOOOOOOoooOOOOooOOOOOO!!!”

Everyone covered their ears and yelped in surprise as the fire alarm went off. Hunk let out a gasp of shock and ran to the kitchen. “My brownies!!!” With that, the session came to an end… and so did half the kitchen.


	17. Escape

The team made their way to mines and thankfully were able to get an audience with the Troll that ran the mines, thanks to the talisman. However, Pike managed to fuck it all up by making a passing flirting comment at a Goblin worker that didn’t like Pike flirting with them. So now they had all been thrown into cells without their gear.

Pike and Shiro were in one cell. Meklavar and Thundar in the next. Valayun and Block in the last. Meklavar was not amused at all by any of this.

“Hey Pike?” She called.

“Yeah?”

“If we get out of here I am going to fucking strngle you with your tail!”

“Don’t threaten him like that!” Snapped Thundar. “I was going to do that!”

Pike let out an indignant noise. “I wasn’t trying to hit on them babe! I swear! I only have eyes for you!”

“I’m going to punch you!”

“Ah!”

Shiro sighed and shook his head. “Come on you guys. We have to figure a way out of this. We have no gear, no real weapons…”

“Anyone know any magic?” Asked Pike.

Valayun sighed. “I’m trying to remember if I know any spells…”

“Same.” Said Block. “There has to be some way out…”

Meklavar groaned in annoyance as she stomped around the cell. She was mad. “They took my axe! Damn it! And I want that emerald back.”

Thandar sighed. “I know… I know…” He thought for a moment before his eyes lit up. “Bolt.”

“What?” 

“I still have Bolt!” Said Thundar excitedly. “No matter where he is, if he is in range I can whistle to summon him and he can come here and get us out.”

“Brilliant plan.” Said Valayun. “However, where is Bolt’s stone? Did they take it? Where is it now?”

Thundar sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Right… Forgot about that…”

***

Out of game everyone was discussing strategies as to how they were going to escape. Hunk was looking through what spells he had and if not having his spetar changed any of his spells. Allura was wondering if she could use some form of magic to make tree roots break through the earth. Pidge wanted to punch the wall, as was Meklavar’s style.

“I could seduce the guard?” Suggested Lance.

“Like you seduced the goblin?” Asked Hunk.

“I was trying to give them a compliment!”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Well they thought you wanted to fuck them.”

Lance pouted some more and looked over at Keith. “You know I didn’t mean to babe, right?”

“I know.” Said Keith. “But Thundar doesn’t know. And he is pissed.”

Lance sighed dramatically and flopped back in his chair. “Man, relationships are hard… Wait!” He quickly sat back up and looked through his datapad. “... Coran, I’m going to send you a message. Tell me if I can or cannot do this.”

After a few seconds Coran received Lance’s message and he started to read it. The man’s eyebrows knitted together for a moment as he read what Lance had sent him. There was high tension in the air as the man contemplated this.

“Do you really want to try this?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“You have to roll very high dexterity and acrobatics.” He warned.

Lance rolled his dice and did the calculations. “... 22 for dex and… 19 for acrobatics?”

Coran closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. “Okay… That thing you are planning? You can do it.”

“Heck yeah!”

***

While everyone was talking and trying to figure out what to do, Pike was looking at the bars of the cell. He hummed and hawed a little. He touched the bars a few times and pressed his face against it. He took a deep breath and pushed against them. Without much effort, Pike managed to squeeze through.

He landed on the ground with a light thump and brushed the dust off himself. “Ha. I did it.”

“What did you do?!” Called Valayun.

“He squeezed through the bars.” Called Shiro.

“Can you see the keys?” She asked.

Pike cracked his knuckles and looked around. “Alright… Keys… keys… Keys and gear… Be back in a second.” He carefully sneaked around the cells and eventually found some of their gear on a table and the keys on a hook on the wall. He only had so many hands and could only grab a few things. He grabbed Shiro’s shield, Block’s staff, Meklavar’s extra hand axe, Valayun’s bow, Thundar’s knives, and some of his own daggers.

Sneaking back was pretty easy. The goblins were probably very busy with mining and stuff now. Too busy to deal with them anyway. He made it back to the cells and quickly freed everyone and handed them the things they found. Everyone quickly geared up, but weren’t happy they didn’t have all their things.

“Hey, that was all I could carry.” Said Pike.

“It’s better than nothing.” Said Valayun.

“The rest of the gear is over there.” Pike gestured to the area where he grabbed their things. The others quickly went and grabbed their own gear. All their stuff was there, except for the elemental stone that Bolt was currently resting in.

Thundar was upset by this. “Why isn’t he here?”

Block patted his back. “To be fair, none of our gold is here either.”

“Perhaps the troll took it?” Suggested Valayun. “Bolt’s stone is very unique.”

“Alright team, new plan.” Said Shiro. “We find the Troll, rescue Bolt, kill the Troll, get Meklavar’s emerald back.”

“Then we can save Block’s village.” Said Meklavar. “And finally get out of the underdark.”

Thundar frowned. “I still need to find out what Vankol and the rest of the Makrabork’s know about my mother… They seem to know more about me than I am comfortable with…”

Shiro put his hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. “Don’t worry. We will figure this out.”

The team nodded and quickly formulated a plan. Block, Shiro, and Valayun would go one way and try to scope out everything and try to find the Troll. Thundar, Pike, and Meklavar would mostly run distractions to keep the goblins away from the others.

It was interesting dropping smoke bombs on random goblins and having Meklavar bop them with her axe or Thundar would shoot them with an arrow. They managed to take down a group of five goblins and a few stray ones. Every fallen goblin was thoroughly searched by Thundar to check for Bolt’s stone. He was becoming increasingly more distressed with every goblin he searched.

“We’ll find him.” Said Meklavar. “Don’t worry. We won’t leave until we get him back.”

“... If we get your emerald before we find Bolt you can keep going on without me.” Said Thundar. “I’ll catch up and-”

Pike shook his head. “Nope. No way. We aren’t going to do that. We care about you. Especially me. We’re going to find Bolt and it’s going to be okay. Yeah?”

Thundar smiled at him. “Okay. We’ll find him together.”

Meklavar rolled her eyes and pulled a face. “Gross. So affectionate with each other.”

Suddenly a roar echoed through the halls and the trio quickly ran to the source. Block, Valayun, and Shiro were squaring off to fight the one eyed troll. They quickly joined the freaky and prepared for the fight.

***

“And that is where we will leave it for today.” Said Coran. “You can fight Snekdark next time.”

“Snekdark?” Questioned Hunk.

Pidge pouted. “Aw, why next time?”

“Because I need to balance out the fight.” Said Coran. “I didn’t expect you lot to reach them yet… Pike getting you all thrown into the cells was not part of the plan. Had to scrap a whole diplomatic dialogue where you could have haggled to get the emerald back.”

“Not my fault!” Claimed Lance. “They took it the wrong way.”

Pidge rolled her eyes and lightly nudged him. “Way to go Romeo. Anyway, I got some coding to get back to. Same time next week?”

“Of course.” Said Coran. “Have fun Pidge.”

Hunk stretched and stood up. “I’m gonna head down to the hanger and work on Yellow for a bit.” Everyone else parted ways after that and went off to do their own thing. Coran still stayed back and read over the rules to figure out how to balance the troll boss for a party of six.


	18. Pillows

With a heave and a ho, Meklavar dropped Snekdark’s head on the table in front of Vankol. The battle with the troll Snekdark was a long and dangerous one, with many near death experiences. With at least half of those deaths being on Shiro’s head. It was pretty even with pretty much everyone else. Bolt really saved the day when Thundar whistled for him. He came through in a pinch and saved the day.

So now Vankol was going to inform Thundar of his past. At least that was part of the agreement. He didn’t seem too happy about having a troll head on his coffee table though.

“Well… This is… Different.” He said. “Did you find what you needed?”

Meklavar grinned. “Yep. I got my emerald back.”

“Excellent.” Vankol then looked over at Thundar. “Now, young half elf… I believe you wish to know your heritage?”

Thundar nodded. “Yes. I… I need to know about my mother.”

Vankol nodded and leaned back in his chair. “It is tradition within the Makraborks to travel up from the Underdark to the surface. During that time your mother met your father, fell in love, and had you. She left the Makraborks seal with you so that if you ever came to the Underdark you would find us.”

“... Is my mother still around?” Asked Thundar quietly.

Vankol nodded. “She is, but she is not in the city at the moment. It will be several days before she returns. If you wish to speak with her you are all welcome to stay here. I am sure she will be more than happy to see you.”

“But why didn’t she take me with her when she left?” He asked. “Why did she leave me with my human father?”

“That is a question you will have to ask her.” Said Vankol calmly. He led the group to the bedrooms and let them go about their business for the rest of the day. 

When Pike got a moment alone with Thundar, he took him aside and sat with him on one of the large beds. Thundar seemed to be a little out of it. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I… I don’t know.” He said quietly. “I just… I’m finally going to meet her. My mother but I… What do I do? What do I say? I’m angry at her for leaving me and my father but I… There’s so much I want to talk to her about, like, Why didn’t she come to find me when my father became too old and frail to take care of himself? Why did I have to suffer this? Growing up alone in the forest… I was just a teenager when he passed. Why couldn’t she at least visit? Why did she abandon us?”

“These are things you probably need to talk to her about.” Said Pike quietly. He put his hand on Thundar’s back and gently rubbed his shoulder. “I… I know this is difficult for you, and I am so sorry that this is happening… But after this you can get some closure. Yeah?”

***

“Your mummy issues are spilling into the game.” Said Pidge.

Keith pouted and crossed his arms. “I don’t have mummy issues. Thundar just happens to be very upset that his mother abandoned him and his father when he was a baby and never came back, gave a reason for leaving, never gave any indication that she was still alive. So it’s reasonable for Thundar to feel abandoned and betrayed.”

Pidge shrugged. “... Mummy issues.”

Keith grumbled and took a long drink from his water pouch. He did not look very happy. Lance sighed dramatically and threw his arms around Keith. “Aw, it’s okay Keith. We’ll help you work through your mummy issues.” Keith continued to grumble about not having mummy issues.

Shiro just sighed. “Keith, you kind of do.”

“Oh, so now you’re ganging up on me?!”

“Yes.”

Keith grumbled and sank deeper into his chair and crossed his arms. He looked pretty grumpy about the whole situation. “Thundar’s the one with the mum issues… Not me…”

“Oh really?” Asked Pidge. “You mean to tell me that you are totally over Krolia having to go back into space?”

“... I feel so attacked right now.” Muttered Keith. “I thought this game was supposed to be fun?”

“I’m having fun.” Said Pidge. “Are you having fun Hunk?”

“Yep.”

“Allura?”

“Absolutely.”

“Coran?”

“Always.”

“See, we’re all having a good time.”

Keith glared at her. “I am going to smack you.”

“Big words from a guy with mummy issues.” They teased.

In retaliation, Keith threw a pillow at her. Also, Lance threw one at her to show solidarity with his boyfriend. Pidge took it in their stride and happily hoarded the pillows. “Ha! Now I have all the pillows! You have all fallen for my dastardly plan to hoard them all!”

Shiro gave her a disapproving look. “Pidge, what have we told you about hoarding the pillows?”

“Not to do it?”

“Yep, and what are you doing?”

“... Fight me for them.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and took a pillow from her. “My pillow now.” 

Pidge gasped in fake shock. “How could you?”

Coran cleared his throat. “Can we get back to the game? Now, Pike and Thundar were having a very heartfelt talk, correct?”

***

Thundar sighed and flopped back onto the bed. “I guess… But what if her answer is that she just didn’t want me, or think I was worthy enough to be here? Part of this family?”

Pike moved so he was laying down next to him. His tail lazily wrapping around his lover’s ankle. “Then she isn’t worthy of your time. You’ll get your closure and you’ll move on. Besides, I think we’re all interested in heading back to Block’s village and lifting the curse.”

Thundar sighed a little and ran his fingers over Pike’s chest. “I guess… What if she does approve of me but not you? Like, what if she wants me in her life but only if you are not? What happens then I… I don’t want to lose you…”

“You won’t lose me.” Said Pike quietly. “I promise you that. On my tail I promise you.”

“On your tail?”

“Well it’s a balance thing with me. Without it I’m not as stealthy as I should be.” Said Pike. He leaned forward and gently kissed him. “Thundar, I love you. Whatever you decide, I’ll respect it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He kissed him again, and again, and again. “Yes. A thousand times yes. If you want me to stay with you then I will stay with you. If you want me to leave then I will leave… But I’ll always come back for you, because I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” Thundar kissed him again and moved them so he was straddling Pike’s hips. He smiled down at him as he took off his own shirt.

Pike was very pleased by this development as he ran his hand over Thundar’s well toned stomach. “What’s all this then?” He asked in an amused voice. “Wanna have some fun with me?”

“Well we have a few hours until someone comes by to check on us.” Said Thundar with a smirk. “Might as well have some fun for a while.”

“Gods I love you so much.”

***

“You two are doing this because I brought up the mummy issues thing, aren’t you?” Grumbled Pidge.

Keith and Lance looked at each other, then back at Pidge. “Yes.”


	19. Fishy names

The group had sat around the table as they went over their notes before the next session. They hadn’t been able to play Monsters and Manna for a while. There were a lot of things going on with the Galra, so they needed to catch up on a few things.

“Alright.” Said Coran. “Let’s have a bit of a recap, shall we? So, correct me if I am wrong, but you went and collected Meklavar’s heirloom gem, and figured out you need it to free Block’s village. Correct?” Everyone nodded in agreement. “You also found out about Thundar’s family heritage through going through the underdark?”

“Pike and Thundar fucked.” Said Lance. Pidge punched his arm.

Coran nodded and twirled his mustache. “Why yes. Now, we’re going to skip ahead a little to meet Thundar’s mother. Is everyone okay with that?” Everyone nodded again, and Coran started the session.

***

The group ended up sitting around the dining table at the Makrabork’s table. Meklavar and Valayun had a very good sleep, while Block was a little uneasy. Shiro too felt a little uneasy about the whole underdark situation, but he did manage to have a good sleep. Pike and Thundar had a very, very good night.

Vankol and several other members of the Makraborks were sitting around the table eating breakfast. They were making small talk in an elf dialect that Valayun and Thundar were having trouble understanding. No one else knew elvish in the first place.

Vankol suddenly cleared his throat. “Rolkia shall be returning by about midday.”

***

“Rolkia?” Questioned Keith. “Really?”

“Shush!” Hissed Pidge. “You’re breaking the immersion.”

***

“Is Rolkia my mother?” Questioned Thundar.

Vankol nodded. “Yes. She will be very interested in meeting you. Once you have finished eating you may walk around and do what you please. Our home is open to you. Please respect it.”

Everyone nodded and went about exploring the Makraborks estate. Pike, Thundar, and Shiro headed down to the gardens. Thunder easily identified that most of the plants there were in fact, poisonous. Which made Pike and Shiro stay as far away from the plants as much as possible.

“Are you excited to meet Rolkia?” Asked Shiro.

Thundar shrugged. “I… I don’t know. I mean I am, but what if she doesn’t like me? What’s your relationships like with your mothers? Good? Bad? Strained?”

“I have a good relationship with her.” Said Shiro. “Lady Sakura Shirogane is a noble woman of the Gillian kingdom. I am her only son and she has told me she is very proud that I have become a paladin. My father was also a paladin.”

Thundar nodded and looked over at Pike. “What about you?”

“My mama loves me a lot. Babied me a fair bit. But she loves me.” Said Pike. “I’m sure she will like you too… That reminds me, we need to see her the next time we are in the city. Mama would love to meet you all. Especially you Thundar.” He purred. “Mama’s always happy to meet someone that’s gonna become part of our family.”

Thundar blushed. “I um…”

“Aw, she’ll love you.” He hugged Thundar and grinned. Which made Thundar whine in annoyance. Which made Pike hug him more.

“Shiro! Make him stop!” Whined Thundar.

Shiro shook his head. “You two decided to consummate your relationship without the blessing of the goddess Lalaluna, so you have to pay for the consequences.”

Thundar pouted and Pike continued to nuzzle the side of his head. “Aw, don’t be all pouty. You loved it last night when I-”

“You’ll shut your mouth if you want to keep all your teeth!” Growled Thundar.

Pike grinned and smooched his cheek. Thundar huffed and attempted to walk over to the fountain in the middle of the garden to try and throw Pike into it. Pike did not like this and quickly squirmed around him to try and avoid his fate. It was an interesting struggle say the least.

As they grappled with each other, a female drow walked into the garden. She instantly noticed the trio and approached Shiro. “Hello? Who might you be?”

Shiro looked at her and offered her his hand to shake. “Shiro of Gillian. I am here with my party. Um… Three of my group are still in the home. I’m sorry, I didn’t see you at the table this morning. Who might you be?” 

“I am Rolkia Makraborks.” She said.

Hearing her name made both Pike and Thundar stop their shenanigans and immediately walked over to her. “You’re Rolkia?” Asked Thundar.

“Yes…” She looked at Thundar with curiosity. “Who might you be?”

“... I’m Thundar. Vankol said that you were my mother.” He said quietly.

“...” Seconds later she pulled Thundar close and hugged him tightly. “Thundar… I have long since dreamed of this day…”

“I… I think I have too.” He hugged her tightly and all the tension in his body melted away. Hugging her made him feel warm and kind of safe.

It was a sweet moment, then Pike spoke. “So, why did you name him Thundar?”

“In his father’s village it was tradition for a child born in an odd month to be named after a weather phenomenon and those in an even month to be named after an animal. Hence why his name was Fox.”

Pike raised an eyebrow but dismissed it. “Okay. Fair enough. Mama named all of us after fish. I have an older sister called Tuna.”

***

“Is that cannon now?” Asked Hunk. “You have a sister called Tuna?”

“Yes.”

Hunk nodded and made a note of that. “Who else?”

“I will think of their names eventually…” Clearly Lance did not know what else to call his siblings. He would need to browse his datapad to find some better fish names.

***

Rolkia shrugged and turned her attention back to her son. “We have much to talk about. Please, come with me. I wish to speak with you.” Thundar nodded in agreement and the two of them walked deeper into the garden.

Pike attempted to follow, but Shiro held him back. “No, let them talk. They have emotions they need to sort out between themselves without us.”

“But I want to meddle!”

“No.”

***

“Okay, I’m going to cut that off here.” Said Coran. “I haven’t really finished off Rolkia’s backstory and motivations just yet, so we’ll have to slip over to the others. This session’s very RP heavy today.”

Allura shrugged. “Well, we have done a lot of fighting recently. Let’s continue.”

As the other three role played, Lance thought about what else to call his siblings. He already had Tuna. Maybe Squid? Guppy? He looked over at Keith who was looking through his notes. He happily nudged his arm and spoke quietly so the others weren’t bothered.

“Hey. Can you give me some types of fish?”

“Huh?”

“I need to think up names for my siblings.”

“Um… Salmon?”

“Salmon?”

“... I miss eating salmon…”

“Same.”

“Catfish?”

“...” Lance chuckled at the thought and wondered if Rachel would try and murder him if he called the character based off of her, Catfish. “Maybe… If our characters have kids can we call one of them guppy?”

Keith shrugged. “Compromise.”

“Yeah?”

“If your character births it, your character names it.”

Lance was slightly flustered by this but easily relented. It seemed fair. Now he needed to see if there was some spell in the monster’s and manna manual that talked about gender change spells or spells that would allow a same sex couple to have a baby. He was going to have his small child named Guppy even if he had to put Pike through 9 months of growing the damn thing, or however long it took for a Womblax to pop out a baby.


	20. Plans

“Okay! Here is my shortlist!” Said Lance as he clapped his hands. He pulled up his datapad and started to read off names; “Guppy, Shrimp, Snapper, Squid, Salmon.”

Hunk looked up from the Yellow lion’s paw and raised an eyebrow. “Are these things you want me to try and make?”

“What? No. Names for Pike’s potential children.”

“Oh, have you been talking with Keith about your characters having kids?” He asked. “I’m pretty sure that there is a pregnancy spell you guys could use… Might need to find a fertility temple to find your best options. I haven’t explored that part of the game much myself, but you never know. Maybe you could adopt a goblin or something?”

Lance grinned. “Aw, that would be so cute! I’d love to have a baby goblin child. They would definitely be called Snapper… or Biter.”

Hunk chuckled. “Just talk to Keith about it. Your characters are still pretty early on in your fictional relationship, right?”

“Hmm, true… Well, if you need me I’ll be in at the training deck.” Lance happily turned and walked out. It was very, very important to talk to Keith about their characters potentially having a kid together, either through magical means or through acquiring a goblin. Goblins were pretty adoptable in Monsters and Manna.

***

Rolkia and Thundar seemed to have bonded really, really well. They looked happy together and that was good. Really good. Everyone was happy that Thundar was able to bond with his mother. He seemed a little more relaxed and the rest of the dark elves within the family seemed very pleased by this development.

“Do you think Thundar will leave the group?” Asked Valayun one evening while the party was relaxing in the sitting room of the Makraborks home.They were discussing the best way to get out of the underdark and back to Block’s village.

“He might.” Said Meklavar. “I mean, he did just find his family after all.”

Pike frowned. “But we’re a couple… He’s technically known me longer than her…”

“He should at least have a choice.” Said Shiro. “If Thundar wants to stay with the Makraborks then we should be supportive in his decision.”

“But he’s part of the team!” Said Pike. “He belongs with us! You’ll back me up on this, right Block?”

The Cleric looked up from the underdark map he was studying. “Huh? Well, I mean… If Thundar wants to stay then he should be allowed to…”

“I can’t believe you all!” Cried Pike. “I’m here, dating Thundar, and you all want him to leave?”

“We don’t want him to leave.” Said Valayun. “We just want to give him a choice. Choice is important for a team… If Thundar stays, will you stay with him?” Pike frowned a little. He didn’t want to stay and leave the group, but he didn’t want to leave Thundar either. He would need to talk with Thundar about this when he next saw him.

***

“Are you really going to leave the party?” Asked Pidge.

Keith shook his head. “No. Thunder still likes the group and doesn’t want to leave them. He’s also head over heels for Pike.”

“Aw babe. I love y-”

“However!” Said Keith quickly. “He’s confused and needs a little bit of direction to stay with the group or he will stay with the Makraborks.”

Coran grinned. “Ah! I have the perfect idea.” He cracked his knuckles. “Is everyone okay with it if I skip over to Thundar and Rolkia?” No one had any objections, so Coran happily continued on with the game.

***

Rolkia had taken Thundar up to one of the spiraling towers to talk. It could have been an observatory if it was on the surface. But being the underdark, it was just showing off the cityscape and beyond. It was kind of beautiful.

“So, what do you think of our home, Thundar?” Asked Rolkia.

“Our home?”

“You are a Makraborks after all.” She said. “You are always welcome here and… We are all happy that you are here. We want you to stay and learn our ways. We all already love and accept you.”

“I get that but… I’ve never known you.” Said Thundar. “I’ve wanted to know who you were my whole life and now… I don’t know… I’ve known my group for much longer and…”

“You are dating that Womblax? Pike?”

“Yeah… Do you not approve?”

Rolkia shrugged. “I have no strong feelings one way or another. Thundar, you are an adult and your choice of partner is not any of my business. I adore you and will respect your choices. However, if that man does hurt you, do not hesitate to return. You are always a part of our family.

“Indeed.” Agreed Vankol as he walked over to them. “Thundar, you are an odd half-elf, and your companions are interesting to say the least, I, as the head of the family, will always allow you to join us… And if you choose to stay and your companion does too, we will treat him as anyone whom has married into the family.”

“And how is that?” Asked Thundar a little skeptically and with mild suspicion.

“With respect and dignity, though certain traditions we keep within the bloodline, as do most families.” Clarified the older male. “We don’t have many traditions like that, but there are a few.”

Thundar nodded a little and looked back out over the city. It was pretty. “I… I like it here but I…”

“You want to keep going with your party?” He questioned. Thundar nodded. “Then that is your decision to make. We pride ourselves on expanding our knowledge. If you wish to leave we only ask for you to return with more knowledge and wisdom than you left with.”

Thundar smiled a little. “Yeah? You’re okay with that?”

“Of course. You’re always a Makraborks.” Vankol smiled and patted his back. “Now, go and speak with your friends. They are planning to leave soon and it would be best to let them know that you are joining them.”

Thundar quickly hugged the both of them before he headed down to where his friends were. He caught the tail end of Pike whining about Thundar leaving the party. He rolled his eyes and wandered in. “I’m not leaving the party you dumb housecat.”

“Housecat?!” Cried Pike in shock.

Meklavar chuckled and grinned. “Really? You’re going to keep traveling with us?”

Thundar nodded. “Yeah. I joined you guys halfway through your quest and I want to see it through to the end. When it’s over I’ll come back here, but I’m not going to bow out just yet.”

***

“That’s so sweet.” Said Hunk, almost tearing up. “Glad you’re still with the party.”

Coran grinned. “Glad that all worked out. I was a little worried that you might end up leaving the party… You are a very good ranger and I’d hate to see you leave… Especially Pike. Pike would hate it if Thundar left.”

“Pike would have stayed with Thundar.” Said Lance. “Heck, Pike is gonna end up going back to the underdark with Thundar when this adventure is all over.”

Allura cleared her throat. “So we are in agreement? We are done in the underdark and are going to leave for Block’s village?”

“That would be right.” Said Shiro. “Once we get out of the Underdark we’re heading to Block’s village and using the Emerald to release them from the petrification curse. We’re then going to escort Meklaver to her home to drop off her emerald, tying up those plot lines.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Said Coran happily. “Oh, I’m so excited. We’re so close to finishing these long storylines off. I’ve been planning this for what feels like phoebs now.”


	21. And the legend lives on

After what felt like forever, the group managed to make their way out of the underdark. Block was very relieved and looked like he was crying tears of joy. Valayun and Shiro were also pretty relieved to be outside. Now they just had to travel back to Block’s village. Everyone was in high spirits as they talked about what they wanted to do now.

“It’s going to be great to see my family up and about again.” Said Block. “I hope they were okay while I was gone…”

Meklavar shrugged. “Hopefully they didn’t get crapped on by too many birds.”

“... I didn’t think of that.” Block frowned. “We’ll need to give them all a quick wash before we turn them back.”

“Good thinking.” Said Shio. He sighed a little and stretched. “Well, what are you all going to do once this is all over? I mean, after we save Block’s town we’re taking the emerald to Meklavar’s home and then that’s kind of it, right?”

“I think I will stay home for a while.” Said Block. “Make sure everyone is good and settled. After this adventure I think I’m good for a while.”

Meklavar laughed. “Yeah, that sounds like you. I’m gonna kick back for a while. Work in the family forge for a few weeks. It’s gonna be sweet. What about you Shiro?”

“I think I’ll go home and see my parents for a bit. It has been a while. What about you Valayun?”

The elf smiled happily. “I think I shall go back to the forest where we first met. I do enjoy being there. There is something to be said about the peace one finds in nature.”

Shiro nodded and looked over at Thundar and Pike. “And you two?”

“I’m going to go back to live with my mother for a while.” Said Thundar. “I want to know more about my family and where I came from…”

“And I’m going with him.” Said Pike. “Where Thundar goes I go.”

“Bark!” Said Bolt.

“HISSSSSSSSSSSS!” Pike practically jumped into a tree. “Why is he out?!”

“Because Bolt deserves to go for a walk.” Said Thundar. The group laughed and continued on their way. 

Once they got to a village they went to the local pub to eat, drink, sleep, and look over their map. They needed to figure out what was the quickest way back to Block’s village. Meklavar was quick to point out that the quickest way would be about one week. It was a little annoying, but they would get by as quickly as possible.

“We just need to cut through the forest.” She said. “Any objections?” With no objections the group made plans and retired for the evening.

***

“Is something wrong Coran?” Asked Pidge.

The group looked over at Coran, who seemed a little sad. “Oh, don’t worry about me. I always get a little sad when a journey comes to an end. It was fun while it lasted… Ah, oh well. We will always have memories.”

Allura frowned a little. “We can always start another campaign once we are done with this one, and this time we can all be part of the first session.”

The older man’s eyes lit up. “You know what? You’re right. I should look into some modules… I have been looking at the Waters of Fiferfeldwell. Might be interesting to make some more aquatic characters…”

“Can I still be a paladin?” Asked Shiro.

Coran nodded. “Yep, and there is a new class introduced; pirate.”

“I’m gonna be a pirate.” Said Lance. He looked over at Keith and smirked. “I’m gonna be plundering that booty.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Yeah, pretty sure I was plundering your booty last night.”

Lance went bright red and let out an indignant noise. Pidge was clearly disgusted by this, but was laughing her head off. The others were embarrassed, but mostly embarrassed for Lance. Getting called out like that was pretty brutal. Even for Keith.

“You did not plunder any booty last night!” Whined Lance.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.” Said Keith as he kept his eyes on his datapad. “I also have some audio from last night…”

“You recorded it?!”

“To be fair you tossed the datapad out of my hand when I was trying to record a video diary.”

That made Pidge laugh harder. She was almost wheezing, she was laughing so hard. “Oh my god… You two… I can’t even. You’re fucking feral, but holy shit! You’re both so stupid! Don’t ever change!”

“Can we get back to the game?” Asked Hunk.

“I agree.” Said Shiro quickly. “Continuing the game would be good.”

“Agreed.” Said Coran. He happily cracked his knuckles. “So, you wake up the next day and head on through the forest…”

***

In the forest things were going really well. The party was practically unstoppable at this point. They could all feel that their quest was coming to an end. It was a pretty bittersweet moment. They had made many memories along the way and they all were happy enough to reminisce about it.

Fighting dragons, fighting evil geese, going in for tournaments, visiting new places… It felt strange to know that it was going to be all over soon. They ended up back at Block’s village, and it seemed very eerie. Like he had said, the whole village was indeed turned to stone.

“Oh wow…” Said Pike as he brushed some leaves off a woman. “Your place is really…”

“Yeah, I know.” Said Block. “Let’s just try and get this sorted out. Now… Where should I do the spell?”

The group looked around the village for a bit before Valayun pointed to the bell tower on the chapel. “How about there? Maybe the whole village will be bathed in whatever magic the emerald radiates?”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Let’s go Meklavar.” They walked to the bell tower and set up the emerald. Block cracked his knuckles and closed his eyes. A green light bathed the town as he chanted out a spell. As he did so, the party left on the ground watched the statues as the stone slowly melted away and they were alive again.

***

“That night you all have a feast in Block’s village.” Said Coran. “After the feast you part ways. Block stays in his village and enjoys a quiet life as a cleric. Meklavar heads home with the emerald and restores her family honor. Valayun returns to the forest to enjoy her peaceful life. Shiro goes home and spends time with his mother, and speaking of mothers, Thundar and Pike go to the underdark.”

“That’s a nice ending.” Said Hunk. 

“Yeah.” Said Pidge. “I kind of half expected a TPK at a few points. Lance.”

“Hey? What did I do?” He whined.

“Breathed.”

“Rude!”

Coran chuckled a little. “Well, that was the game. I’ll try and cook up a new game. It’ll be interesting to see what you lot come up with next time.”

“I’m going to be a paladin.” Said Shiro.

“We know.” Said Pidge. “You’re always a paladin.”

Shiro shrugged. “I like being a paladin.”

“You could consider being a fighter?” Suggested Hunk. “Less spells but you get access to some more weapons. Hand to hand combat?”

The older man thought for a moment. “Hmm… I’ll think about it.”

Allura smiled. “Well, that was a wonderful game Coran. I’m very excited to see what the next adventure will bring. I-” An alarm suddenly went off and everyone got to their feet. “Paladins! To your lions! We’re under attack!” The paladin’s quickly got up and raced to their lions. While playing Monsters and Manna was fun, they were still paladins of Voltron. They need to get back to defending the universe.


End file.
